ADAPTIVE PACKET TRAINING

A mechanism that dynamically adjusts the number of packets sent in the train from a node to reflect the rate of packets arriving at the node. A train is a group of packets that are sent from the node as one unit. The node has an optimum train length that the node would like to send. The node also has a timer interval, which is the maximum time to wait before sending the next train. If the timer interval expires and the number of packets accumulated in the train is less than the optimum train length, then the node transmits the train and sets the optimum train length to be the number of packets actually received; that is, the optimum train length is adjusted downward. If the number of packets accumulated equals the optimum train length and the timer interval has not yet expired, the receiving node transmits these packets in a train, and if the next packet arrives before the time that the timer would have expired, the node increases the optimum train length.