Experimental and Comparative Analysis of Channel Delay Impact on Rate-Based and Window-Based Transmission Mechanisms over Space-Internet Links

While the window-based mechanism is not favorable in a space communication environment which is characterized by a large BDP, the potential of the rate-based Internet-type protocols to have low loss by maintaining a smooth data flow has made them attractive in space. However, very few studies have been done on the development and evaluation of rate-based transmission control for space environments. This paper presents an experimental, comparative analysis of channel delay impact on the rate-based and the window-based transmission mechanisms over space-Internet links. This work focuses on the effectiveness of rate-based and window-based transmission control mechanisms in coping with space-channel delay from low earth orbit (LEO) satellite links, geo-stationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite links, and cislunar communication links.