Impact of channel access and transport mechanisms on QoE in GEO-satellite based LTE backhauling systems

TL;DR

This paper evaluates how different channel access and transport mechanisms affect user experience in GEO-satellite LTE backhauling, emphasizing the importance of dynamic resource allocation and protocol tuning for optimizing QoE.

Contribution

It introduces an emulation-based framework to compare TCP PEP and resource allocation strategies, highlighting their impact on QoE in satellite LTE backhaul systems.

Findings

PEP and layer-2 mechanisms offer limited benefits under congestion.

Protocol and channel optimization significantly improve data transfer when not congested.

Tuning Constant Rate Assignment reduces costs and enhances QoE in lightly loaded networks.

Abstract

Backhauling services through satellite systems have doubled between 2012 and 2018. There is an increasing demand for this service for which satellite systems typically allocate a fixed resource. This solution may not help in optimizing the usage of the scarce satellite resource. This study measures the relevance of using dynamic resource allocation mechanisms for backhaul services through satellite systems. The satellite system is emulated with OpenSAND, the LTE system with Amarisoft and the experiments are orchestrated by OpenBACH. We compare the relevance of applying TCP PEP mechanisms and dynamic resource allocations for different traffic services by measuring the QoE for web browsing, data transfer and VoIP applications. The main conclusions are the following. When the system is congested, PEP and layer-2 access mechanisms do not provide significant improvements. When the system is not congested, data transfer can be greatly improved through protocols and channel access mechanism optimization. Tuning the Constant Rate Assignment can help in reducing the cost of the resource and provide QoE improvements when the network is not loaded.