An Evaluation of TCP Slow Start Over Satellite Channels

This presentation will focus on TCP's slow start algorithm in the satellite environment. Slow start is used to slowly increase TCP's sending rate at the beginning of a connection. We propose two modifications to slow start to increase the rate more rapidly (thus benefiting long-delay channels, such as satellite links). The first mechanism is to start with a higher initial sending rate. The second mechanism is to alter the algorithm slow start employs to increase the sending rate. The presentation will start with a description of slow start and our modifications. Next, test results using the NASA ACTS satellite system will be presented. Finally, conclusions and future work will be presented.