RFC 2760 (rfc2760) - Page 2 of 46
Ongoing TCP Research Related to Satellites
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 2760 Ongoing TCP Research Related to Satellites February 2000
Table of Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2 Satellite Architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1 Asymmetric Satellite Networks . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 Satellite Link as Last Hop. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.3 Hybrid Satellite Networks . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.4 Point-to-Point Satellite Networks . . . . . . . . . 4
2.5 Multiple Satellite Hops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3 Mitigations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1 TCP For Transactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2 Slow Start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2.1 Larger Initial Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2.2 Byte Counting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2.3 Delayed ACKs After Slow Start . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2.4 Terminating Slow Start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.3 Loss Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.3.1 Non-SACK Based Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.3.2 SACK Based Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.3.3 Explicit Congestion Notification. . . . . . . . . . 16
3.3.4 Detecting Corruption Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.4 Congestion Avoidance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.5 Multiple Data Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.6 Pacing TCP Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.7 TCP Header Compression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.8 Sharing TCP State Among Similar Connections . . . . 29
3.9 ACK Congestion Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.10 ACK Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5 Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
6 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
7 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
8 Authors' Addresses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
9 Full Copyright Statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
1 Introduction
This document outlines mechanisms that may help the Transmission
Control Protocol (TCP) [Pos81] better utilize the bandwidth provided
by long-delay satellite environments. These mechanisms may also help
in other environments or for other protocols. The proposals outlined
in this document are currently being studied throughout the research
community. Therefore, these mechanisms are not mature enough to be
recommended for wide-spread use by the IETF. However, some of these
mechanisms may be safely used today. It is hoped that this document
will stimulate further study into the described mechanisms. If, at
Allman, et al. Informational