Distributed testing and measurement across the Atlantic packet satellite network(SATNET)

The analysis of the test and measurement of TCP/IP performance over the Atlantic Packet Satellite Network (SATNET) is described. Both the methodology and tools as well as the results and their analysis are discussed. Because of the Internetwork nature of the environment, the tests were designed to allow the SATNET Measurement Taskforce to look at the effects of each component of the end-to-end path, e.g., local networks, gateways, SATNET, and protocol layers. Results are given for the IP service provided by SATNET as a function of offered load and for TCP behavior as a function of offered load and the underlying IP service.