RFC 3135 (rfc3135) - Page 1 of 45


Performance Enhancing Proxies Intended to Mitigate Link-Related Degradations



Alternative Format: Original Text Document



Network Working Group                                          J. Border
Request for Comments: 3135                        Hughes Network Systems
Category: Informational                                          M. Kojo
                                                  University of Helsinki
                                                               J. Griner
                                              NASA Glenn Research Center
                                                           G. Montenegro
                                                  Sun Microsystems, Inc.
                                                               Z. Shelby
                                                      University of Oulu
                                                               June 2001


    Performance Enhancing Proxies Intended to Mitigate Link-Related
                              Degradations

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This document is a survey of Performance Enhancing Proxies (PEPs)
   often employed to improve degraded TCP performance caused by
   characteristics of specific link environments, for example, in
   satellite, wireless WAN, and wireless LAN environments.  Different
   types of Performance Enhancing Proxies are described as well as the
   mechanisms used to improve performance.  Emphasis is put on proxies
   operating with TCP.  In addition, motivations for their development
   and use are described along with some of the consequences of using
   them, especially in the context of the Internet.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2. Types of Performance Enhancing Proxies  . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.1 Layering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.1.1 Transport Layer PEPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   2.1.2 Application Layer PEPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   2.2 Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   2.3 Implementation Symmetry  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   2.4 Split Connections  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7



Border, et al.               Informational