Window-based and rate-based transmission control mechanisms over space-Internet links

Abstract

Space communications urgently need an effective transmission control mechanism. This paper presents an experimental, comparative analysis of window-based transmission control, rate-based transmission control, and a hybrid of the two over error-prone, congestion-free, high-latency, point-to-point space communication links simulated using the space-to-ground link simulation (SGLS) test-bed. The results revealed that the traffic shaping mechanism of rate-based transmission protocol is more effective than the bursting flow of window-based protocol over simulated space communication links with a high error rate and a long link delay. The window-based transmission mechanisms show performance degradation due to traffic bursts and frequent packet retransmissions caused by their acknowledgment (ACK)-clocked transmission control algorithms. Pure rate-control is always preferable to other mechanisms in the simulated congestion-free, error-prone, point-to-point, geostationary-Earth orbit (GEO)-space communication channels, and its advantages become more pronounced when the channel rates are asymmetric. The performance differences come from their different behavior in controlling data transmission.