Modeling and performance analysis of file transfer in a satellite wide area network

The authors consider the network modeling and performance analysis of multimedia file transfer between workstations connected to remotely located local area networks (LANs). The LANs are linked by a satellite wide-area network (SWAN) with a high bandwidth and high path delay. Four areas are addressed: (1) development of a fairly accurate interconnection network model using measured delay values for different network elements; (2) derivation of tight upper and lower bounds for the network throughput for both error-free and error-prone channels using mean value analysis; (3) validation of the model using computer simulation; and (4) analysis of the SWAN performance using numerical results for a wide range of parameters (file sizes, window size, link speed, number of workstations, etc.) for the case of a multimedia SWAN. Based on the analyses, performance bottlenecks for different operating conditions that could be used to evolve design criteria for better overall system performance are identified