Support of elastic TCP traffic over broadband geostationary satellite networks

Support of elastic TCP traffic over broadband GEO satellite networks v control algorithm for TCP flows over split-TCP satellite networks that can preserve the target requirements in terms of TCP steady-state throughput and TCP latency. We describe generic fixed-point approximations for the performance of TCP flows in geostationary satellite networks. We provide examples for the method applicability to various satellite network configurations evaluate the method against simulation results in the context of MAC-shared satellite links with dynamic bandwidth allocation mechanisms and discuss its strong and weak points. The utility of these approximations is further demonstrated in the case of the algorithm we introduce for the dynamic control of the TCP maximum receive window variable in split-TCP satellite networks. The algorithm accelerates TCP transfers at low load without overloading unnecessarily the MAC buffers at high load. Finally, as an addendum, we provide a case study of Web browsing over bandwidth on demand satellite links. Spanning three layers, namely application, transport and access layers, the study demonstrates the impact of the radio interface mechanisms upon the performance perceived at the application layer.