Broadband Satellite Network Performance
Sastri Kota
Raj lain
Rohit Goyal
IETF are developing baseline specifications of the architecture, reference models, protocols, interfaces, and performance models. In this Feature Topic, we have tried to bring together the developments and results of such activity. Our first goal is topresent a series ofstudies on the performance issues of current and future broadband satellite networks. These articles not only discuss results of experiments, but also describe techniques for simulation, modeling, and analysis. The second goal is to discuss existing and proposed research and standards activities in satellite networking. A Feature Topic on
“SatelliteATMNetworkArchitectures”puh1ishedinMarch1999, presented a series of proposals on new architectures for satellite ATM networks. These two issues should provide the reader with agoodunderstandingofthecurrentstatus of satellitesystems planning, standards development, and the potential areas of research. The first article, “NASA’s Broadband Satellite Networking Research,” hy William Ivancic, David Brooks, Brian Frantz, D. Hoder, Dan Shell, and David Beering is an overview of the various research activities organized by NASA on satellite research. The article discusses both standards activities, as well as recent experimental results conducted by the authors. The second article by Bo Ryu, “Modeling and Simulation of Broadband Satellite Networks Part 11: Traffic Modeling,” proposes techniques for modeling traffic on a satellite network. The article proposes three ways of modeling satellite traffic, and compares the techniques using statistical analysis of traffic traces. T h e next two articles present performance results o n TCPIIP over satellite networks. The article, “Performance Evaluation of TCP Extensions on ATM over High Bandwidth Delay Product Networks” by Chsralambous Charalambos, Victor S. Frost, and Joseph B. Evans, presents performance results of TCP using the NASA ACTS satellite. The article presents comparative results over LAN, WAN and Satellite networks for TCP Reno, New Reno and SACK. The article, “TCPiIPEnhancements for Satellite Networks” by Nasir Ghani and Sudhir Dixit, is a survey of recently proposed enhancements to theTCP protowl for satellitenetworks.The article also nresents simulation results of various TCP enhancements over satellite links. The next article by Enrique Cnevas, “The Development of Performance and Availability Standards for Satellite ATM Networks” discusses the standards being developed by the ~
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ITU-R nn the pcrformance of ATM over satellites and the availahility objectives for ATM transport over satellites. The articlc also idcntifies several issues for future work rclatcd to on-hoard processing and intersatellite links. Thc sixth article, "A Keview of Error Performance Models for Satcllitc ATM Networks" by Jojo CClin Brandio, Erncsto Leite Pinto, and Marco A. C. Maia presents statistical error models and their use forcalculatillg the error performancc parameters for satcllite networks. Analysis nf ATM layer QoS parameters in relation to UER statirtics has also bccn presented. The final article is an architecture article titled "A Satellite switched CDMA System for Fixed Scrvice Communications" by Uiakoumis Gerakoulis, Evaggelos Geraniotis, Robert Miller. and Saeed Ghasscmzadeh. The article proposes a multiple access and switching architecture for satellite systems, and presents several performance issues. W e would likc l o thank t h e Editor-in-Chief Andrzcj Jajszczyk and thc IEEE publications staff for their assistancc with this Feature Topic. All the authors and the reviewers did an cxccllent job in meeting the tight deadlines. Wc arc prateful t u them fur their cooperation. BIOGRAPHIES S A ~ T R IKOTA ISM '861(sastri.kataelmco.com) I S a technical comultant w i t h Lockheed Martin Mission Systems in the areas of broadband networks, c o m ~ mer& and military satellitesyrtemr architectures. and standards and regulatoryaffairr. He has more than 25yearrof experiencein networkrystemsderign, anaiyrir and held technical and project management positions at SRI lnterna~ tiondl, Ford Aerospace. XEROX, The MITRE Corporation, and Computer Sci-
l E E t Communications hf+ya/inr
July 1999
ences Corporation. Currently he is very active in the teleCOmmuniLationi and networks standards development organizations and is a n ATM Forum ambassador for wireless ATM and he i s the ITU-R Working Party 48 Rapporteur for the New Recommendation "Performance of Satellite Systems ope rat^ ing Over 15 GHz.'' He has published and presented over 60 technical papers. He is the past chair of IEEE Aerospace and Electronics Society of the Bay Area (1994-1995). He har served ar technical co-chair and aisiitdnt technical chair for MILCOM '97 and ' 9 0 : conference chair for SPIE '90-91; session organizer and chair for MILCOM '86. '90,and 3 2 - 9 7 , He holds a B.Sc. in phyricr from Andhra University. a B.E. in telecommunicationS from Birla Institute of Science and Technology, Pilani. an M.E. in electronics and communicationsfrom Univerrityof Roorkee,andan electrical engineer'rdqlreefrom Northeastern University, Boston. He is a senior member of A I M , and a member of ACM and SPIE. His research interests include broadband networks, wireless ATM. performance modeling and simulations. multiole acce~s.traffic management, and QoS for Satellite ATM Networks
RA, JAIN I F '931 is a proferror Of computer and information science at The Ohia State University. He i s an active member of t h e ATM Forum Traffic Management group and has influenced i t s direction considerably. He is a Fellow of ACM. and serve5 on the editorial boards of Computer Networks a n d ISDN Systems. Computer Communications (U.K.), and the Journal o f High Speed Networks. He is the author of t w o popular books: FDDl Handbook: High Speed Networking using Fiber a n d Other Media, published by Addison~Werleyand The An O f Computer Systems Performance Analysi5. published by Wiley. His publications and ATM Forum Contributions can be found at http:liwww.ris.ohio-rtateedu/-jain ROW GOY^ (
[email protected]) is a senior software engineer at Nexabit Networks. Hereceived a Ph.D. in computetsciencefromTheOhio State Univenity in 1999. Hisprimdryreiedrch interestrarequalityof rervice.traffir management, and performance analysis for high-speed networks. He is an active participant in the ATM Forum, IETF, and TIA, and has published several conference and journal papers. He received a 0.8. in Computer Science from Deniron University, Granville. Ohio, and an M.S. in computer and information science from The Ohio State University
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