Thesis (M.S.) -- Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: Performance Enhancing Proxy; ABR; IP; Satellite; QoS; TCP. Includes bibliographical references (p.110-111).

Thesis (M.S.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: TCP; RED; satellite; PEP; STP; performance enhancing proxy; segment caching; IP-ABR; Internet; bandwidth reservation; IP-VBR; congestion avoidance; bandwidth sharing. Includes bibliographical references (p. 98-99).

The transport control protocol (TCP) is one of the most heavily used protocols on the Internet, offering a reliable, connection oriented transport service. However, the quality of service (QoS) provided by the TCP protocol deteriorates when it is used over satellite IP networks. With the increased usage of Internet applications by the military in remote geographical regions, there is an increased need to address some of the shortcomings of TCP performance in satellite IP networks. In this research we describe our efforts at designing and testing a performance enhancing proxy (PEP) that can be used improve the QoS provided by the TCP service in large latency networks. We also show how one can use such a proxy to create a new transport service similar to the Available Bit Rate (ABR) service provided by ATM networks without needing ATM infrastructure, this new service offers a connection oriented, reliable, best effort transport service with minimal queuing delay, jitter and throughput variation.

La réduction des budgets du domaine spatial et les missions scientifiques traditionnelles ayant des coûts et une complexité croissants a amené la communauté scientifique à se concentrer sur les petits satellites qui fournissent non seulement des résultats scientifiques de valeur, mais permettent aussi de nouvelles applications dans le domaine de la télédétection, de la surveillance environnementale et des télécommunications. De plus, le concept de vol en formation de petits satellites est une technologie-clé pour beaucoup de missions spatiales futures, en améliorant la capacité de survie et réduisant le coût des missions. Ce travail de recherche a un double but : la proposition de modèles innovants de constellations de nano-satellites et de nouvelles approches de routage pour les réseaux de nano-satellites. Cette thèse propose et analyse trois modèles de constellations de nano-satellites dénommés NanoDREAM, NanoiCE et NanoSPHERE, qui fournissent des services de télécommunications aux régions éloignées. Le modèle NanoDREAM est conçu pour le Désert Salar de Uyuni en Bolivie, une région qui détient 70% de la réserve mondiale de lithium. Le modèle NanoiCE est destiné aux Régions Polaires, pour satisfaire les besoins de télécommunications de la communauté scientifique. Le modèle NanoSPHERE est conçu pour fournir une couverture globale de la Terre pour un marché de télécommunications concurrentiel. De plus, nous avons proposé une architecture pour le segment terrestre basée sur la technologie sans fil. Cette architecture a été déployée sur la zone d'exploitation du Désert Salar de Uyuni. Ces modèles ont été développés analytiquement et mis ensuite en œuvre dans le simulateur SaVi afin d'identifier la meilleure constellation satisfaisant les requis de la mission en terme de couverture et en réduisant au minimum le nombre de nano-satellites de la constellation. […] / The growth in cost and complexity of traditional scientific missions along with the reduction in space budgets have determined space community to focus on small satellites that not only provide valuable scientific returns, but also allow completely new applications in remote sensing, environmental monitoring and communications. Furthermore, small satellite flying in formation is a key technology for many future space science missions, by improving mission survivability and reducing mission costs, and offering multi-mission capabilities, achieved through reconfiguration of formations.The main goal of this thesis is two-fold: proposing innovative nanosatellite constellation models andnew routing approaches for nanosatellite network telecommunications. Therefore, this research work proposes and analyzes three models of nanosatellite constellations, named NanoDREAM, NanoiCE, NanoSPHERE, that provide telecommunication services to remote regions of the Earth. NanoDREAM mode! is designed for Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni Desert, a region which detains 70% of the global lithium reserve. NanoiCE model is intended for Polar Regions, in order to meet the voice and data transfer needs of the entire Antarctic and Arctic scientific community. NanoSPHERE is aimed to provide global coverage in the context of a robust telecommunications market. Additionally, a ground segment architecture based on wireless technology and deployed over the exploitation area of Salar de Uyuni Desert was proposed. Moreover, two new methodologies were proposed: the first one is a method for estimating the number of nano-satellites needed to cover a specific region was, and the second one is a Markov modeling­ based method for evaluating the performance of nanosatellite constellations. [...]

With a new United States Army initiative to exploit commercially developed information technology, there is a heightened interest in using Internet protocols over the military's geosynchronous satellite links. TCP is the dominant Internet protocol used for reliable data exchange, but its own design limits performance when used over long delay network links such as satellites. Initially this research set out to compare TCP with another proposed protocol, the Satellite Transport Protocol (STP). However through a series of tests, we found that STP does not fulfill its claims of increased throughput over TCP and uncovered a flaw in STP's founding research. In addition, this thesis proposes and demonstrates novel performance enhancing techniques that significantly improve transport protocol throughput.