Quality of service for satellite IP networks: a survey

• Published in: International journal of satellite communications and networking Vol. 21; no. 4-5; pp. 303 - 349
• Main Authors: Kota, Sastri, Marchese, Mario
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.07.2003
• Subjects: DAMA; DiffServ; IntServ; MPLS; QoS; satellite IP; spread ALOHA; TCP; UDP
• ISSN: 1542-0973; 1542-0981
• DOI: 10.1002/sat.765

The future media rich applications such as media streaming, content delivery distribution and broadband access require a network infrastructure that offers greater bandwidth and service level guarantees. As the demand for new applications increases, ‘best effort’ service is inadequate and results in lack of user satisfaction. End‐to‐end quality of service (QoS) requires the functional co‐operation of all network layers. To meet future application requirements, satellite is an excellent candidate due to features such as global coverage, bandwidth flexibility, broadcast, multicast and reliability. At each layer, the user performance requirements should be achieved by implementation of efficient bandwidth allocation algorithms and satellite link impairment mitigation techniques. In this paper, a QoS framework for satellite IP networks including requirements, objectives and mechanisms are described. To fully understand end‐to‐end QoS at each layer, QoS parameters and the current research are surveyed. For example at physical layer (modulation, adaptive coding), link layer (bandwidth allocation), network layer (IntServ/DiffServ, MPLS traffic engineering), transport layer (TCP enhancements, and alternative transport protocols) and security issues are discussed. Some planned system examples, QoS simulations and experimental results are provided. The paper also includes the current status of the standardization of satellite IP by ETSI, ITU and IETF organizations. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.