2.7.15 TCP Over Satellite (tcpsat)

NOTE: This charter is a snapshot of the 43rd IETF Meeting in Orlando, Florida. It may now be out-of-date. Last Modified: 25-Nov-98

Chair(s):

Aaron Falk <adfalk@mail.hac.com>

Transport Area Director(s):

Scott Bradner <sob@harvard.edu>
Vern Paxson <vern@ee.lbl.gov>

Transport Area Advisor:

Vern Paxson <vern@ee.lbl.gov>

Mailing Lists:

General Discussion:tcpsat@lerc.nasa.gov
To Subscribe: majordomo@lerc.nasa.gov
In Body: subscribe tcpsat your_email_address
Archive: http://tcpsat.lerc.nasa.gov/tcpsat/mail.html

Description of Working Group:

Satellites are being used to extend the Global Internet geographically and will be more ubiquitous in the next decade with the deployment of several proposed services capable of providing greater than T1 access to individual users anywhere in the world.

Yet, satellite links have a unique combination of characteristics that can affect the throughput of TCP traffic. Because of the high-bandwidth delay product, slow start and congestion control algorithms behave much differently when the path includes a satellite link than exclusively terrestrial ones.

The TCP over Satellite Working Group shall produce an informational RFC which describes the issues affecting TCP throughput over satellite links. It identifies the domains in which each issue applies, including network topology, satellite orbit (LEO, MEO, GEO), and link rates; fixes, both protocol and implementation, that ameliorate reduced throughput; and areas for further research. The purpose of including this information is to direct the research community to the areas in which show promise, not to perform the research or even advocate the results.

Scope:

The scope of this working group will include consideration of the following for inclusion in the Informational RFC:

o Transport layer issues affecting TCP over satellite links o Existing TCP options o Compliant implementations which have some known improved performance over satellite links o Recommendation of well understood protocol changes o Identification of protocol changes that are potentially promising but require more further investigation in order to be well understood

SECURITY

The working group will consider in depth security issues that are relevant, describing risks and indicating how they may be addressed.

Goals and Milestones:

Jul 97

  

Post first Internet-Draft.

Aug 97

  

Meet at Munich IETF to review Internet-Draft.

Dec 97

  

Meet at DC IETF tyo achieve consensus on final version of Internet-Draft.

Jan 98

  

Submit Internet-Draft to IESG for consideration as an Informational RFC.

Internet-Drafts:

No Request For Comments

Current Meeting Report

TCPSAT Summary
Report By: Jim Griner (jgriner@lerc.nasa.gov)

The TCP over Satellite group met on December 8th at 1PM. Aaron Falk, WG chair presented the WG status, showing the following:

Mark Allman, document editor, presented a brief summary of new sections added to the research issues draft. No new sections are being solicited for the draft. Plans are to have all editing done in mid-January, and submission to the IESG in mid-February.

Jim Griner, NASA Lewis, announced an Internet-Draft is available, which defined terminology used in discussions about TCP performance enhancing proxies. draft-griner-tcppep-term-00.txt

Rohit Goyal, Ohio State University, presented an overview of the Internet-Draft Optimizing TCP over Satellite ATM Networks, draft-goyal-tcpsat-tcpatm-00.txt. Aaron raised the question as to whether the TCPSAT group wanted to request a charter change that would allow the TCP over ATM over satellite work to be completed in the WG. Many think technical articles should be written about this issue, but that it is not within the IETF scope. There did not seem to be consensus or WG energy to take on this additional document.

Slides

None received.