TCP-friendly Bandwidth-on-Demand Scheme for Satellite Networks

The Bandwidth-on-Demand (BoD) issue is becoming crucial in the next generation satellite systems, since it addresses the problem of providing the data traffic with the access to the network while guaranteeing a high exploitation of the valuable satellite bandwidth. This paper presents BoD scheme specifically tailored for transporting TCP traffic over geostationary satellite networks. The scheme uses an equation-based algorithm for TCP burst prediction coupled with a control-theoretic scheme to provide the necessary robustness to prediction errors and to network congestions. Comprehensive simulation results shows the effectiveness of the proposed BoD scheme. The work underlying this paper has been performed in the context of the SATIP6 project belonging to the fifth framework Information Society and Technology (IST) programme of the European Union.