Tail drop is a simple queue management algorithm used by

network scheduler A network scheduler, also called packet scheduler, queueing discipline (qdisc) or queueing algorithm, is an arbiter on a node in a packet switching communication network. It manages the sequence of network packets in the transmit and receive q ...

s in

network equipment Networking hardware, also known as network equipment or computer networking devices, are electronic devices which are required for communication and interaction between devices on a computer network. Specifically, they mediate data transmission ...

to decide when to drop packets. With tail drop, when the queue is filled to its maximum capacity, the newly arriving packets are dropped until the queue has enough room to accept incoming traffic. The name arises from the effect of the policy on incoming packets. Once a queue has been filled, the router begins discarding all additional datagrams, thus dropping the tail of the sequence of packets. The loss of packets causes the TCP sender to enter slow start, which reduces throughput in that TCP session until the sender begins to receive acknowledgements again and increases its congestion window. A more severe problem occurs when datagrams from multiple TCP connections are dropped, causing global synchronization; i.e. all of the involved TCP senders enter slow-start. This happens because, instead of discarding many segments from one connection, the router would tend to discard one segment from each connection.

See also

Further reading