Performance of TCP/IP Using ATM ABR and UBR Services over Satellite Networks

We study the buffering requirements for zero cell loss for TCP/IP over satellite links using the available bit rate (ABR) and unspecified bit rate (UBR) services of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks. For the ABR service, we explore the effect of feedback delay (a factor which depends upon the position of the bottleneck), the switch scheme used, and background variable bit rate (VBR) traffic. It is shown that the buffer requirement for TCP over ABR is independent of the number of TCP sources, but depends on the aforementioned factors. For the UBR service, we show that the buffer requirement is the sum of the TCP receiver window sizes. We substantiate our arguments with simulation results.