RFC 2488 (rfc2488) - Page 1 of 19
Enhancing TCP Over Satellite Channels using Standard Mechanisms
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group M. Allman
Request for Comments: 2488 NASA Lewis/Sterling Software
BCP: 28 D. Glover
Category: Best Current Practice NASA Lewis
L. Sanchez
BBN
January 1999
Enhancing TCP Over Satellite Channels
using Standard Mechanisms
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the
Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) provides reliable delivery of
data across any network path, including network paths containing
satellite channels. While TCP works over satellite channels there
are several IETF standardized mechanisms that enable TCP to more
effectively utilize the available capacity of the network path. This
document outlines some of these TCP mitigations. At this time, all
mitigations discussed in this document are IETF standards track
mechanisms (or are compliant with IETF standards).
1. Introduction
Satellite channel characteristics may have an effect on the way
transport protocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
[Pos81], behave. When protocols, such as TCP, perform poorly,
channel utilization is low. While the performance of a transport
protocol is important, it is not the only consideration when
constructing a network containing satellite links. For example, data
link protocol, application protocol, router buffer size, queueing
discipline and proxy location are some of the considerations that
must be taken into account. However, this document focuses on
improving TCP in the satellite environment and non-TCP considerations
are left for another document. Finally, there have been many
satellite mitigations proposed and studied by the research community.
While these mitigations may prove useful and safe for shared networks
in the future, this document only considers TCP mechanisms which are
Allman, et. al. Best Current Practice
