Wired reports Caltech engineers are working on Fast TCP technology that boosts download speed by more than 6,000 times through server-side network stack changes.  Here is a list of related Caltech papers I found on the Web:

FAST TCP: From Theory to Experiments (500K PDF) – We describe a variant of TCP, called FAST, that can sustain high throughput and utilization at multi-Gbps over large distance. We present the motivation, review the background theory, summarize key features of FAST TCP, and report preliminary experimental results.

Optimization Flow Control, I: Basic Algorithm and Convergence (270K PDF) – We propose an optimization approach to flow control where the objective is to maximize the aggregate source utility over their transmission rates. We view network links and sources as processors of a distributed com-putation system to solve the dual problem using gradient projection algorithm. In this system sources select transmission rates that maximize their own benefits, utility minus bandwidth cost, and network links adjust bandwidth prices to coordinate the sources' decisions. We allow feedback delays to be different, substantial and time-varying, and links and sources to update at different times and with different frequencies. We provide asynchronous distributed algorithms and prove their convergence in a static environment. We present measurements obtained from a preliminary prototype to illustrate the convergence of the algorithm in a slowly time-varying environment.

A Duality Model of TCP and Queue Management Algorithms (250K PDF) – We propose a duality model of end-to-end congestion control and apply it to understand the equilibrium properties of TCP and active queue management schemes. The basic idea is to regard source rates as primal variables and congestion measures as dual variables, and congestion control as a distributed primal-dual algorithm over the Internet to maximize aggregate utility subject to capacity constraints. The primal iteration is carried out by TCP algorithms such as Reno or Vegas, and the dual iteration is carried out by queue management algorithms such as DropTail, RED or REM. We present these algorithms and their generalizations, derive their utility functions, and study their interaction.

You can find other interesting papers they wrote here.  Enjoy.