Editing Random early detection (section)

== Operation ==
RED monitors the average queue size and drops (or marks when used in conjunction with [[Explicit Congestion Notification|ECN]]) packets based on statistical [[Probability|probabilities]]. If the buffer is almost empty, then all incoming packets are accepted. As the queue grows, the probability for dropping an incoming packet grows too. When the buffer is full, the probability has reached 1 and all incoming packets are dropped.

RED is more fair than tail drop, in the sense that it does not possess a bias against bursty traffic that uses only a small portion of the bandwidth. The more a host transmits, the more likely it is that its packets are dropped as the probability of a host's packet being dropped is proportional to the amount of data it has in a queue. Early detection helps avoid TCP global synchronization.