Optimal acknowledgment pace for maximum throughput over asymmetric satellite links

The acknowledgment (ACK) strategy of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the features that have been modified to improve its performance in asymmetric networks. It has been modified to allow the data-receiver to delay the ACKs for a configurable period of time that is related to its estimate of the round-trip time (RTT). Either a general relationship between optimal ACK frequency and asymmetric channel ratio or a set of optimal ACK frequency values that achieve maximal performance for various asymmetric channel ratios is not available. The paper studies optimal ACK frequency values with respect to channel RTT to achieve the highest throughput over various asymmetric, GEO-satellite links.