Systems and methods are described for controlling congestion, such as within the transport control protocol (TCP) based on bandwidth estimation techniques which provide explicit indications of back-to-back packet traffic. In response to registered back-to-back traffic, receiver-side bandwidth estimation techniques are exploited to enhance the congestion control behavior of TCP based networks. By way of example, a sender marks packets in the header or by changing segment size within a packet to indicate whether the packet is being sent back-to-back. A receiver utilizes the explicit back-to-back information, optionally in conjunction with other back-to-back packet estimation techniques, when estimating available bandwidth and setting congestion parameters. In addition a mechanism for controlling the length of packet trains is described which is based on modulating the transmission of delayed acknowledgements, such as sending acknowledgements upon receipt of a selected number of packets.
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