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A bit error rate analysis for TCP traffic over parallel free space photonics

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Abstract

Inter-satellite links (ISL) are a useful technology to transmit data to space stations and to communicate between satellites. However, there are serious limitations due to long delays and poor channel performance, resulting in high bit error rates (BER). In this paper, parallel transmission and the scaling of the Transport Control Protocol (TCP) window in free space optics (FSO) communications are analyzed in order to overcome these disadvantages in optical inter-satellite links. Latency and BER are the dominant effects that determine link performance. Thus, a physical, link, network and transport cross-layer analysis for FSO over ISL is presented in this paper. This analysis shows the advantages and disadvantages of using optical parallel transmission and TCP window scaling for free space optical links between stations and satellite constellations. The key contribution of this work is to simulate the effects of the BER and to link the results to packet error rate (PER) to determine the goodput for TCP transmissions by using a cross-layering approach. The results give evidence that wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) can mitigate the effects of long delay and high BER for a FSO communication using TCP.

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Notes

  1. Scalable Simulation Framework (SSF) is a discrete simulator created by Dartmouth College, USA under a free license distribution. SSFNet is part of the SSF simulator and it is built in the Java Language. Part of the code for the congestion window was modified by the authors of this paper. Please see the link at, http://www.ssfnet.org.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UAM-Iztapalapa, San Rafael Atlixco 186 Col. Vicentina, Iztapalapa, 09340, México City, Mexico

    Enrique Rodriguez-Colina & Víctor M. Ramos R.

  2. Sener Ingeniería y Sistemas, Severo Ochoa 4—Parque Tecnológico de Madrid, 28760, Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain

    Diego Gil-Leyva

  3. University of Girona, EPS Edifici P-IV (D.208), Campus de Montilivi, 17071, Girona, Spain

    Jose L. Marzo

Authors
  1. Enrique Rodriguez-Colina
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  2. Diego Gil-Leyva
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  3. Jose L. Marzo
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  4. Víctor M. Ramos R.
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Correspondence to Enrique Rodriguez-Colina.

Additional information

Part of this work has been done when Enrique Rodriguez-Colina was with the Photonics Systems Team of the Engineering Department of the University of Cambridge, and later with the Institute of Informatics and Applications of the University of Girona.

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Rodriguez-Colina, E., Gil-Leyva, D., Marzo, J.L. et al. A bit error rate analysis for TCP traffic over parallel free space photonics. Telecommun Syst 56, 455–466 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-013-9764-4

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