A Literature Review on Network Performance and Congestion Control Mechanisms in Multi-User Computer Laboratories

Multi-user computer laboratories in tertiary institutions face unique network performance challenges due to
synchronized traffic bursts, heterogeneous application demands, and limited bandwidth. This review synthesizes
research on TCP congestion control algorithms (Reno, Cubic, BBRv2, BBRv3), fairness dynamics, Active Queue
Management (AQM) schemes (CoDel, PIE), and empirical studies in educational networks, with particular
attention to the Nigerian context. Key findings reveal fundamental trade-offs: BBRv3 achieves the highest
throughput (≈905 Mbps) but introduces higher latency (≈0.79 ms) and jitter (≈4.2 ms) compared to Cubic, which
delivers balanced performance and superior fairness (Jain’s index 0.89) under moderate buffer provisioning.
BBRv3 exhibits self-induced queuing delay (adding 0.95× RTTmin) and persistent fairness problems with
heterogeneous RTTs. AQM mechanisms reduce bufferbloat by up to 62% with minimal throughput penalty.
Empirical studies from Nigerian universities report baseline delays of 0.1545 s and throughput degradation of
0.25 Mbps per additional user. Significant gaps remain in evaluating modern algorithms under realistic, high
concurrency laboratory workloads.

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