A Feedback Implosion Suppression Algorithm for Satellite Reliable Multicast

Gun Akkor, John S. Baras and Michael Hadjitheodosiou

Number: CSHCN TR 2003-3, Year: 2003, Advisor: John S. Baras

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a knapsack-based feedback suppressionalgorithm for reliable multicast transport protocols operating over asatellite network. A reliable transport protocol needs to identify thepackets which failed to reach a given destination. This is achievedthrough feedback packets returned to the source. For multicastservices, receiver feedback has been shown to lead to thefeedback implosion problem. Feedback implosion is awell-studied problem and various solutions exist in the literature.However, these solutions mainly focus on wireline terrestrial networksand do not take into account the inherent characteristics of thesatellite channel and the architecture of the deployed network.Therefore, we need to revisit the problem and provide a new set ofsolutions for efficient integration to next generation satellitesystems. In this paper, we introduce a feedback implosion suppressionalgorithm, which effectively suppresses the amount of feedback relayedthrough the satellite channel, while ensuring that the criticalinformation is conveyed in a timely fashion. The performance of thealgorithm is evaluated through simulations.