Design and performance analysis of accelerator to enhance TCP in satellite IP networks

As the Internet dramatically changes the world, applications that based on TCP/IP are taking up an increasing proportion in satellite services. Since there are characteristics such as long round trip delay and high bit error rate in satellite communication links, when combined with TCP/IP services, it will lead to frequently data resending and decrease network throughput. An accelerator based on Space Communication Protocol Standard Transport Protocol (SCPS-TP) has been designed and presented in this paper functioning as a Performance Enhancing Proxy (PEP) to improve TCP performance in satellite IP networks. Testing results show that satellite IP networks using the accelerator can achieve higher throughput performance, shorter transfer delay, better stability and stronger flexibility. The accelerator is totally transparent to the applications, and therefore it could be applied to any kind of space communication, and it could also meet the demand for rapid response in military, earthquakes and other emergencies.