Internet Engineering Task Force                                  N. Kuhn
Internet-Draft                                                      CNES
Intended status: Informational                              G. Fairhurst
Expires: May 6, 2020                              University of Aberdeen
                                                               J. Border
                                             Hughes Network Systems, LLC
                                                              E. Stephan
                                                                  Orange
                                                        November 3, 2019


                            QUIC for SATCOM
                        draft-kuhn-quic-4-sat-02

Abstract

   QUIC has been designed for use across Internet paths.  Initial
   designs of QUIC have focussed on common deployment scenarios for web
   traffic and have not focussed on the performance when using a path
   with a large Bandwidth-Delay Product (BDP).  A path can combine
   satellites network segment together with a wide variety of other
   network technologies (Ethernet, cable modems, WiFi, cellular, radio
   links, etc): this complicates the characteristics of the end-to-end
   path.  One example of such a scenario occurs when a satellite
   communication (SATCOM) system is used to provide all or a part of the
   end-to-end path.  If this is not addressed, the end-to-end quality of
   experience can be degraded.

   This memo identifies the characteristics of a SATCOM link that impact
   the operation of the QUIC transport protocol and proposes current
   practice to ensure acceptable protocol performance.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on May 6, 2020.



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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2019 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
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   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Operating over a path with a large BDP  . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  TCP Split Solution  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   4.  Mechanisms that improve the performance of QUIC for SATCOM  .   5
     4.1.  Getting up to speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.2.  Maximum window  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.3.  Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.4.  ACK ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.  Discussion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   6.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   7.  Contributors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   8.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   9.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   10. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     10.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     10.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

1.  Introduction

   The end-to-end performance of an application using an Internet path
   can be impacted by the Bandwidth-Delay Product (BDP) of the links and
   network devices forming the path.  For instance, the page load time
   for a complex page can be much larger when the path includes a
   satellite link.  A significant contribution to this reduced
   performance arises from the initialisation and design of transport
   mechanisms.  QUIC's default congestion control is based on TCP
   NewReno [I-D.ietf-quic-recovery] and the recommended initial window
   is defined by [RFC6928].  Although QUIC's CC and recovery have been
   designed for use across Internet Paths, the initial design could not
   optimise for the wide diversity of path characteristics that can



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   occur.  This document therefore considers the specific implications
   of paths with a significant BDP.

   Satellite communications (SATCOM) systems have long been used to
   support point-to-point links and specialised networks.  The
   predominate current use is as a link-layer for Internet Protocols.
   Typical example applications include: use as an access technology for
   remote locations, backup and rapid deployment of new services,
   transit networks and backhaul of various types of IP networks, and
   provision to mobile (maritime, aircraft, etc.).  In most scenarios,
   the satellite IP network segment usually only forms one part of the
   end-to-end path.  This means user traffic can experience a path that
   includes satellite link together with a wide variety of other network
   technologies (Ethernet, cable modems, WiFi, cellular, radio links,
   etc).  Although a user can sometimes know the presence of the
   satellite service, a typical user does not deploy special software or
   applications because they expect a satellite network is being used.
   Often a user is unaware of the technologies underpinning the links
   forming the network path.

   This memo identifies the characteristics of a SATCOM link that impact
   the operation of the QUIC transport protocol and proposes best
   current practice to ensure acceptable protocol performance.

2.  Operating over a path with a large BDP

   The characteristics of systems using Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO)
   satellites differ from paths only using terrestrial links in their
   path characteristics:

   o  A large propagation delay of at least 250ms one-way delay;

   o  Employ radio resource management (often using techniques similar
      to cellular mobile or DOCSIS cable networks, but differing to
      accommodate the satellite propagation delay);

   o  Links can be highly asymmetric (in terms of capacity and one-way
      delay).

   Many systems use the DVB-S2 specifications, where the key concept is
   to ensure both a good usage of the satellite resource and a Quasi
   Error Free (QEF) link.  It consists in monitoring the link quality in
   real-time, with the help of known symbols sequences, included along
   regular packets, on which an estimation of the current signal-to-
   noise ratio can be done.  Then, this estimation is send back to the
   transmitter that can adapt its coding rate and modulation order to
   best fit the actual transmission conditions.




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   It is common to consider the satellite network segment composed of a
   forward link and a return link.  The two links can have different
   capacities and employ different technologies to carry the IP packets.
   On the forward link, the satellite gateway uses all the available
   bandwidth, possibly with several carriers, to communicate with the
   remote terminals.  A carrier is a single Time-Division-Multiplexing
   where packets addressed to terminals are multiplexed.  On the return
   link, the satellite resource is shared among the users.  Two access
   methods can be distinguished: on-demand access or contention access.
   In the former, a terminal receives dedicated resources on its own to
   communicate with the gateway.  In the latter, some resources are
   reserved for contention access, where several terminals can compete
   to obtain the resource.  Dedicated access, which is more common in
   currently deployed systems, can be through a Demand Assigned Multiple
   Access (DAMA) mechanism, while contention access techniques are
   usually based on Slotted Aloha (SA) and its numerous derivatives.
   More information on satellite links characteristics can be found in
   [RFC2488][IJSCN17].

   Beyond that, even for characteristics shared with terrestrial links,
   the impact on a satellite link could be more and can be amplified by
   the large RTT.  For example, systems can exhibit a high loss-rate
   (e.g. mobile users or users behind a Wi-Fi link) which would impact
   loss recovery mechanisms and congestion control reaction to such loss
   events.  The characteristics of a GEO SATCOM system impact the
   performance of congestion control:

   o  Transport initialization: the 3-way handshake takes a long time to
      complete, delaying the time at which actual data can be
      transmitted;

   o  Size of windows required: to fully exploit the bottleneck
      capacity, a high BDP will increase the number of in-flights
      packets;

   o  Reliability: packet loss detection and correction is slow (the
      performance of end-to-end retransmission is also impacted when
      using a high RTT path);

   o  Getting up to speed: the exponential increase of the data rate
      during slow start for a channel capacity probing is slowed down
      when the RTT is high;

   o  Asymetry : when the links are asymmetric, for various reasons, the
      sizing of the return link may induce modifications of the
      transport level acknowledgement traffic.





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3.  TCP Split Solution

   High BDP networks commonly break the TCP end-to-end paradigm to adapt
   the transport protocol.  Splitting TCP allows adaptations to this
   specific use-case and assessing the issues discussed in section
   Section 2.  Satellite communications commonly deploy Performance
   Enhancement Proxy (PEP) for compression, caching and TCP acceleration
   services [RFC3135].  Their deployment can result in 50% page load
   time reduction in a SATCOM use-case [ICCRG100].

   [NCT13] and [RFC3135] describe the main functions of SATCOM TCP split
   solutions.  Shortly, for traffic originated at a gateway to an
   endpoint connected via a satellite terminal, the TCP split intercepts
   TCP SYN packets to act on behalf of the endpoint and adapt the data
   rate transmission to the SATCOM scenario.  The split solution
   specifically tunes the TCP parameters to the context (latency,
   available capacity) of each link.  When a PEP is used on each side of
   the satellite link, a protocol other than TCP, optimized for the
   satellite link, may be used.  The tuning can be achieved using a
   priori information about the satellite system and/or by measuring the
   properties of the network segment that includes the satellite system.

   One important advantage of a TCP split solution is that it does not
   require any end-to-end modifications and is independent for both
   client and server sides.  That being said, this comes with a
   drawback: TCP splitters often are unable to track the most recent
   end-to-end improvements in protocol mechanisms (e.g., RACK, ECN, TCP
   Fast Open support) contributing to ossification of the transport
   system.  The methods configured in the split proxy usually continue
   to be used until a split solution is finally updated.  This can
   delay/negate the benefit of any end-to-end improvements.

4.  Mechanisms that improve the performance of QUIC for SATCOM

4.1.  Getting up to speed

   The advantage of using QUIC is that it includes the TLS and TCP
   negociations that reduce the time at which the data can be
   transmitted.  That being said, results of [IJSCN19] illustrate that
   it will take many RTTs for the congestion controller to increase the
   rate before it fills the bottleneck capacity.  This dominates
   performance when a path has a large RTT (as in GEO SATCOM networks).
   There is an issue in QUIC getting up to speed in a SATCOM context.

   The tuning of the initial window described in
   [I-D.irtf-iccrg-sallantin-initial-spreading] which has been shown to
   improve performance both for high BDP and more common BDP
   [CONEXT15][ICC16] could be a relevant solution.  That being said,



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   such solution requires the usage of pacing to avoid important bursts
   of packets in the network that does not have a large BDP.

4.2.  Maximum window

   A large number of in-flight packets are prewired to fully exploit the
   bottleneck capacity, when there is a large BDP.  Default values of
   maximum windows may not be suitable for a SATCOM context.

   Such as presented in [PANRG105], only increasing the initial
   congestion window is not the only way that can improve QUIC
   performance in a SATCOM context: increasing maximum congestion
   windows can also result in much better performance.  Other protocol
   mechanisms also need to be considered, such as flow control at the
   stream level in QUIC.

4.3.  Reliability

   Packet loss detection and loss repair take additional time on paths
   with a larger RTT.  This increases the time that a server needs to
   react to a congestion event.  Both can impact the user experience.
   This happens when a user uses a Wi-Fi link to access a SATCOM
   terminal.  Although the benefits needed to weighed against the
   additional capacity in introducing end-to-end FEC and the potential
   to use link-local ARQ and/or link-adaptive FEC.  End-to-end
   connections may not only suffer from losses in the Wi-Fi segment but
   also from congestion losses in the satellite operator ground segment.
   Using the mechanisms proposed in
   [I-D.ferrieux-hamchaoui-quic-lossbits], congestion losses have been
   identified on the ground segment.

   Introducing network coding in QUIC such as proposed in
   [I-D.swett-nwcrg-coding-for-quic] and
   [I-D.roca-nwcrg-rlc-fec-scheme-for-quic] could help in recovering
   from the residual Wi-Fi or congestion losses.  Another solution would
   be the usage of QUIC tunnels [I-D.schinazi-masque].

4.4.  ACK ratio

   Asymmetry in capacity (or in the way capacity is granted to a flow)
   can lead to cases where the throughput in one direction of
   communication is restricted by the acknowledgement traffic flowing in
   the opposite direction.  The limitations of specific underlying
   networks could be in terms of the volume of acknowledgement traffic
   (limited return path capacity) or in the number of acknowledgement
   packets (e.g., when a radio-resource management system has to track
   channel usage) or both.




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   TCP Performance Implications of Network Path Asymmetry [RFC3449]
   describes a range of mechanisms that can mitigate the impact of path
   asymmetry.  One simple method is to tell the remote endpoint to send
   compound acknowledgments less frequently.  A rate of one ACK every
   RTT/4 can significantly reduce this traffic.

   Many of these mitigations have been deployed in satellite systems,
   often as a mechanism within a PEP.  Despite their benefits over paths
   with a high asymmetry of capacity, most mechanisms rely on being able
   to inspect and/or modify the transport layer header information of
   TCP ACK packets.  This is not possible when the transport layer
   information is encrypted.  The QUIC transport specification may
   evolve to allow the ACK Ratio to be adjusted.

5.  Discussion

   Many of the issues identified already exist for any encrypted
   transport service that uses a path that employs encryption at the IP
   layer.  This includes endpoints that utilise IPsec at the network
   layer, or use VPN technology over the satellite network segment.
   These uses are unable to benefit from enhancement within the
   satellite network segment, and often the user is unaware of the
   presence of the satellite link on their path, except through
   observing the impact it has on the performance they experience.

   One solution would be to provide PEP functions at the termination of
   the security association (e.g., in a VPN client).  Another solution
   could be to fall-back to using TCP (possibly with TLS or similar
   methods being used on the transport payload).  A final solution could
   be to deploy and maintain a bespoke protocol tailored to high BDP
   environments.  In the future, we anticipate that fall-back will
   become less desirable, and methods that rely upon bespoke
   configurations or protocols will be unattractive.  In parallel, new
   methods such as QUIC will become widely deployed.  The opportunity
   therefore exists to ensure that the new generation of protocols offer
   acceptable performance over high BDP paths without requiring
   operating tuning or specific updates by users.

6.  Acknowledgements

   TBD

7.  Contributors

   TBD






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8.  IANA Considerations

   TBD

9.  Security Considerations

   This document does not propose changes to the security functions
   provided by the QUIC protocol.  QUIC uses TLS encryption to protect
   the transport header and its payload.  Security is considered in the
   "Security Considerations" of cited IETF documents.

10.  References

10.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

10.2.  Informative References

   [CONEXT15]
              Li, Q., Dong, M., and P. Godfrey, "Halfback: Running Short
              Flows Quickly and Safely", ACM CoNEXT , 2015.

   [I-D.ferrieux-hamchaoui-quic-lossbits]
              Ferrieux, A. and I. Hamchaoui, "The QUIC Loss Bits",
              draft-ferrieux-hamchaoui-quic-lossbits-00 (work in
              progress), April 2019.

   [I-D.ietf-quic-recovery]
              Iyengar, J. and I. Swett, "QUIC Loss Detection and
              Congestion Control", draft-ietf-quic-recovery-23 (work in
              progress), September 2019.

   [I-D.ietf-quic-tls]
              Thomson, M. and S. Turner, "Using TLS to Secure QUIC",
              draft-ietf-quic-tls-23 (work in progress), September 2019.

   [I-D.ietf-quic-transport]
              Iyengar, J. and M. Thomson, "QUIC: A UDP-Based Multiplexed
              and Secure Transport", draft-ietf-quic-transport-23 (work
              in progress), September 2019.







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   [I-D.ietf-tls-ticketrequests]
              Pauly, T., Schinazi, D., and C. Wood, "TLS Ticket
              Requests", draft-ietf-tls-ticketrequests-03 (work in
              progress), October 2019.

   [I-D.irtf-iccrg-sallantin-initial-spreading]
              Sallantin, R., Baudoin, C., Arnal, F., Dubois, E., Chaput,
              E., and A. Beylot, "Safe increase of the TCP's Initial
              Window Using Initial Spreading", draft-irtf-iccrg-
              sallantin-initial-spreading-00 (work in progress), January
              2014.

   [I-D.roca-nwcrg-rlc-fec-scheme-for-quic]
              Roca, V., Swett, I., and M. Montpetit, "Sliding Window
              Random Linear Code (RLC) Forward Erasure Correction (FEC)
              Schemes for QUIC", draft-roca-nwcrg-rlc-fec-scheme-for-
              quic-01 (work in progress), February 2019.

   [I-D.schinazi-masque]
              Schinazi, D., "The MASQUE Protocol", draft-schinazi-
              masque-01 (work in progress), July 2019.

   [I-D.swett-nwcrg-coding-for-quic]
              Swett, I., Montpetit, M., Roca, V., and F. Michel, "Coding
              for QUIC", draft-swett-nwcrg-coding-for-quic-03 (work in
              progress), July 2019.

   [ICC16]    Sallantin, R., Baudoin, C., Chaput, E., Arnal, F., Dubois,
              E., and A-L. Beylot, "Reducing web latency through TCP IW:
              Be smart", IEEE ICC , 2016.

   [ICCRG100]
              Kuhn, N., "MPTCP and BBR performance over Internet
              satellite paths", IETF ICCRG 100, 2017.

   [IJSCN17]  Ahmed, T., Dubois, E., Dupe, JB., Ferrus, R., Gelard, P.,
              and N. Kuhn, "Software-defined satellite cloud RAN",
              International Journal of Satellite Communications and
              Networking , 2017.

   [IJSCN19]  Thomas, L., Dubois, E., Kuhn, N., and E. Lochin, "Google
              QUIC performance over a public SATCOM access",
              International Journal of Satellite Communications and
              Networking , 2019.

   [NCT13]    Pirovano, A. and F. Garcia, "A new survey on improving TCP
              performances over geostationary satellite link", Network
              and Communication Technologies , 2013.



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   [PANRG105]
              Kuhn, N., Stephan, E., Border, J., and G. Fairhurst, "QUIC
              Over In-sequence Paths with Different Characteristics",
              IRTF PANRG 105, 2019.

   [RFC2488]  Allman, M., Glover, D., and L. Sanchez, "Enhancing TCP
              Over Satellite Channels using Standard Mechanisms",
              BCP 28, RFC 2488, DOI 10.17487/RFC2488, January 1999,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2488>.

   [RFC3135]  Border, J., Kojo, M., Griner, J., Montenegro, G., and Z.
              Shelby, "Performance Enhancing Proxies Intended to
              Mitigate Link-Related Degradations", RFC 3135,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC3135, June 2001,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3135>.

   [RFC3449]  Balakrishnan, H., Padmanabhan, V., Fairhurst, G., and M.
              Sooriyabandara, "TCP Performance Implications of Network
              Path Asymmetry", BCP 69, RFC 3449, DOI 10.17487/RFC3449,
              December 2002, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3449>.

   [RFC6349]  Constantine, B., Forget, G., Geib, R., and R. Schrage,
              "Framework for TCP Throughput Testing", RFC 6349,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6349, August 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6349>.

   [RFC6928]  Chu, J., Dukkipati, N., Cheng, Y., and M. Mathis,
              "Increasing TCP's Initial Window", RFC 6928,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6928, April 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6928>.

   [RFC8446]  Rescorla, E., "The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol
              Version 1.3", RFC 8446, DOI 10.17487/RFC8446, August 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8446>.

Authors' Addresses

   Nicolas Kuhn
   CNES

   Email: nicolas.kuhn@cnes.fr


   Godred Fairhurst
   University of Aberdeen

   Email: gorry@erg.abdn.ac.uk




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   John Border
   Hughes Network Systems, LLC

   Email: border@hns.com


   Emile Stephan
   Orange

   Email: emile.stephan@orange.com









































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