Title :
TCP/IP-based multimedia applications and services over satellite links: experience from an ASI/CNIT project
Author :
Adami, Davide ; Marchese, Mario ; Ronga, Luca Simone
Author_Institution :
Pisa Univ., Italy
fDate :
6/1/2001 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
This article describes the activity performed in the three-year project “Integration of Multimedia Services on Heterogeneous Satellite Networks,” funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and carried out by the Italian National Consortium for Telecommunications (CNIT). The description of the activity allows highlighting the problems, findings, and solutions in utilizing TCP/IP-based services and applications, such as audio-video transmission and Web browsing, via satellite channels. The article presents an experimental approach to provide QoS guarantees and to improve the performance of TCP over a satellite network based on the TCP/IP suite. The aim is to obtain a proper environment for data, voice, and video transmission oriented to a distance learning service that uses both audio-video applications and Web-based tools. The experimental scenario is made up of three remote LANs. Two of them are connected through a geostationary orbit satellite link in the Ka-band (20-30 GHz). The other LAN, located in a site where no satellite station is available, is connected through an ISDN link at 512 kb/s. Both subjective metrics such as mean opinion score and objective metrics such as throughput and overall transmission time have been used to evaluate the performance of the system and to get proper configurations able to guarantee a high QoS perceived by the users. The integrated services approach along with the resource reservation protocol were chosen to reserve the network resources at the IP level. A modified version of TCP has been proposed and utilized to reduce the download time during Web browsing and f.t.p. sessions. The measures reported have been obtained by real operative sessions
Keywords :
ISDN; distance learning; information resources; local area networks; multimedia communication; performance evaluation; quality of service; research initiatives; satellite links; transport protocols; visual communication; 20 to 30 GHz; 512 kbit/s; ASI/CNIT project; ISDN link; Italian National Consortium for Telecommunications; Italian Space Agency; Ka-band; LAN; QoS guarantees; TCP performance; TCP/IP-based multimedia applications; TCP/IP-based multimedia services; Web browsing; Web-based tools; audio-video applications; audio-video transmission; data transmission; distance learning service; download time reduction; geostationary orbit satellite link; heterogeneous satellite networks; integrated services; mean opinion score; multimedia services integration; network resources reservation; objective metrics; overall transmission time; resource reservation protocol; satellite channels; satellite links; satellite network; subjective metrics; throughput; video transmission; voice transmission; Artificial satellites; Bandwidth; Computer aided instruction; ISDN; Local area networks; Quality of service; TCPIP; Testing; Throughput; Transport protocols;
Journal_Title :
Personal Communications, IEEE