TCP's Initial Window –- Deployment in the Wild and its Impact on Performance

TCP congestion control and particularly its initial congestion window (IW) size is one long-debated topic that can influence Web performance. Its size is, however, assumed to be static by IETF recommendations-despite being network- and application-dependent-and only infrequently changed in its history. To understand if the standardization and research perspective still meets Internet reality, we s...