TCP-Peach: a new congestion control scheme for satellite IP networks

Current TCP protocols have lower throughput performance in satellite networks mainly due to the effects of long propagation delays and high link error rates. In this paper, a new congestion control scheme called TCP-Peach is introduced for satellite networks. TCP-Peach is composed of two new algorithms, namely Sudden Start and Rapid Recovery, as well as the two traditional TCP algorithms, Congestion Avoidance and Fast Retransmit. The new algorithms are based on the novel concept of using dummy segments to probe the availability of network resources without carrying any new information to the sender. Dummy segments are treated as low-priority segments and accordingly they do not effect the delivery of actual data traffic. Simulation experiments show that TCP-Peach outperforms other TCP schemes for satellite networks in terms of goodput. It also provides a fair share of network resources.