SPDY multiplexing approach on long-latency links

New paradigms for web applications have motivated in recent years a series of proposals to update the Internet protocols. One of the proposed protocols is called SPDY, endorsed and developed by Google. This protocol at application layer is able to optimize Web page loading time, allowing additional features such as multiplexing, flow control and priority, and providing security as well. Some SPDY working principles can be particularly effective in a satellite context, aspect not yet well covered by present literature. This paper assesses the use of SPDY in a satellite-based scenario, in particular focusing on the multiplexing feature, which is one of the main innovations. The main objective is to demonstrate how SPDY approach relying on few TCP connections (one in the optimal case) to carry all the Web objects brings a relevant performance improvement. The analysis is supported by experiments over a Linux based testbed introducing a long latency link to the data patch, including a reference SPDY implementation.