Wireless and Satellite Systems. 7th International Conference, WiSATS 2015 Bradford, UK, July 6–7, 2015, Revised Selected Papers

Research Article

Can Network Coding Mitigate TCP-induced Queue Oscillation on Narrowband Satellite Links?

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  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-319-25479-1_23,
        author={Ulrich Speidel and Lei Qian and ’Etuate Cocker and P\^{e}ter Vingelmann and Janus Heide and Muriel M\^{e}dard},
        title={Can Network Coding Mitigate TCP-induced Queue Oscillation on Narrowband Satellite Links?},
        proceedings={Wireless and Satellite Systems. 7th International Conference, WiSATS 2015 Bradford, UK, July 6--7, 2015, Revised Selected Papers},
        proceedings_a={WISATS},
        year={2015},
        month={10},
        keywords={Queue oscillation TCP Network coding Satellite links},
        doi={10.1007/978-3-319-25479-1_23}
    }
    
  • Ulrich Speidel
    Lei Qian
    ’Etuate Cocker
    Péter Vingelmann
    Janus Heide
    Muriel Médard
    Year: 2015
    Can Network Coding Mitigate TCP-induced Queue Oscillation on Narrowband Satellite Links?
    WISATS
    Springer
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-25479-1_23
Ulrich Speidel1,*, Lei Qian1,*, ’Etuate Cocker1,*, Péter Vingelmann2,*, Janus Heide2,*, Muriel Médard3,*
  • 1: The University of Auckland
  • 2: Steinwurf ApS
  • 3: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
*Contact email: ulrich@cs.auckland.ac.nz, lqia012@cs.auckland.ac.nz, ecoc005@cs.auckland.ac.nz, peter@steinwurf.com, janus@steinwurf.com, medard@mit.edu

Abstract

Satellite-based Internet links often feature link bandwidths significantly below those of the ground networks on either side. This represents a considerable bottleneck for traffic between those networks. Excess traffic banks up at IP queues at the satellite gateways, which can prevent conventional TCP connections from reaching a transmission rate equilibrium. This well-known effect, known as can leave the satellite link severely underutilised, with a corresponding impact on the goodput of TCP connections across the link. Key to queue oscillation are sustained packet losses from queue overflow at the satellite gateway that the TCP senders cannot detect quickly due to the long satellite latency. Network-coded TCP (TCP/NC) can hide packet loss from TCP senders in such cases, allowing them to reach equilibrium. This paper reports on three scenarios in the Pacific with two geostationary and one medium earth orbit connection. We show by simulation and circumstantial evidence that queue oscillation is common, and demonstrate that tunneling TCP over network coding allows higher link utilisation.