Nagle's algorithm: Difference between revisions

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'''Nagle's algorithm''', named after ChristopherJohn Nagle, is a means of improving the efficiency of [[TCP/IP]] networks by reducing the number of packets that need to be sent over the network.

Nagle's document, ''Congestion Control in IP/TCP Internetworks'' (RFC 896) describes what he called the "small packet problem", where an application repeatedly emits data in small chunks, frequently only 1 [[byte]] in size. Since [[Transmission Control Protocol|TCP]] packets have a 40 byte header (20 bytes for TCP, 20 bytes for [[IPv4]]), this results in a 41 byte packet for 1 byte of useful information, a huge overhead. This situation often occurs in [[Telnet]] sessions, where most keypresses generate a single byte of data that is transmitted immediately. Worse, over slow links, many such packets can be in transit at the same time, potentially leading to [[congestion collapse]].