In a data communication network operated under the TCP/IP suite of
protocols the invention adds an adaptive streaming (AS) layer, inserted
between the IP and the TCP protocol layers, in which the received data
packets of each open TCP connection are temporarily queued and from where
they are first reordered then, delivered to the TCP layer at a pace
matching the optimal receiving rate of TCP connections. Thus, the
invention adds a rate-based transmission mechanism to the TCP layer for
the received data packets so as to better adapt to higher-speed
communication lines and to reduce drastically the burstiness of the TCP
flow control.
