Transport layer optimization for cloud computing applications via satellite: TCP Noordwijk+

Cloud computing can significantly improve efficiency in Internet utilization and data management. Several cloud applications (file sharing, backup, data up/download etc.) imply transfers of large amount of data without real-time requirements. In several use-cases cloud-computing solutions reduce operational costs and guarantee target QoS. These solutions become critical when satellite systems are utilized, since resources are limited, network latency is huge and bandwidth costs are high. Using satellite capacity for cloud-computing bulk traffic, keeping acceptable performance of interactive applications, is very important and can limit the connectivity costs. This goal can be achieved installing in the Set Top Box (STB) a proxy agent, to differentiate traffic and assign bandwidth according to priority, leaving spare capacity to bulk cloud computing traffic. This aim is typically reached using a specific QoS architecture, adding functional blocks at network or lower layers. We propose to manage such a process at transport layer only. The endpoint proxy implements a new transport protocol called TCP Noordwijk+, introducing a flow control differentiation capability. The proxy includes TPCN+ which efficiently transfers low-priority bulk data and handles interactive data, keeping a high degree of friendliness. The outcomes of Ns-2 simulations confirm applicability and good performance of the proposed solution.