Robust stability analysis of Smith predictor-based congestion control algorithms for computer networks

Congestion control is a fundamental building block in packet switching networks such as the Internet due to the fact that communication resources are shared. It has been shown that the plant dynamics is essentially made up of an integrator plus time delay and that a proportional controller plus a Smith predictor defines a simple and effective controller. It has also been shown that the TCP congestion control can be modelled using a Smith predictor plus a proportional controller. Due to the importance of this control structure in the field of data network congestion control, we analyse the robust stability of the closed-loop system in the face of delay uncertainties that are present in data networks due to queuing. In particular, by applying a geometric approach, we derive a bound on the proportional controller gain which is necessary and sufficient to guarantee the closed-loop stability for a given bound on the delay uncertainty.