QoS Evaluation of HTTP over Satellites

This paper presents the studies for the end-to-end QoS of IP over integrated terrestrial and Next Generation Satellite Network (NGSN) using HTTP web application. We compare between Big-LEO and EuroSkyWay like satellites constellations for the QoS parameters (e.g. delay, loss ratio, throughput and connection duration) of request-response HTTP connections from a remote server in London and a remote client in Boston. We model the HTTP request-response with multiple connections and response files sizes variations. We create the network scenario with error model to simulate the transmission loss environment using NS-2 simulation software. A Differentiated Services (Diffserv) queue interface is placed in the terrestrial network on the server side to regulate and differentiate the traffic flows across the narrow bandwidth of the satellite links. The results showed a good performance evaluation comparison of the QoS parameters involved in the HTTP web communications across LEO and GEO satellite systems.