Restoring End‐to‐End Transport With QUIC on Satellite Paths

Hofstätter M, Secchi R, Fairhurst G, de Cola T, Hielscher KS, German R (2026)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2026

Journal

International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking Wiley-Blackwell

Original Authors: Matthias Hofstätter, Raffaello Secchi, Gorry Fairhurst, Tomaso de Cola, Kai‐Steffen Hielscher, Reinhard German

DOI: 10.1002/sat.70090

Abstract

Slow Start is a key congestion control mechanism used to assure a safe response to overload of a path across the Internet. This mechanism increases the startup time taken by the sender to reach the capacity available across the path. The benefit becomes significant on paths with a high bandwidth-delay product. TCP flows using a GEO satellite path have commonly mitigated this by using a PEP. However, QUIC introduces a new Internet transport to improve security that uses end-to-end encryption. This prevents the use of unauthenticated in-network functions, such as a PEP. This paper therefore revisits the role of PEPs and evaluates how QUIC can achieve comparable performance using end-to-end mechanisms. Results are presented over both GEO and LEO satellite systems, reflecting the growing importance of LEO constellations and multi-orbit deployments. Careful Resume is evaluated as a new method to accelerate startup by cautiously reusing previously observed path state. The results show that this significantly reduces startup delay and improves transfer performance. For GEO paths, Careful Resume achieves startup performance comparable to TCP with a PEP, while for LEO paths it remains robust despite dynamic changes in round-trip time and capacity. Overall, we show that QUIC provides an alternative to using a PEP for TCP under the same conditions.

Authors with CRIS profile

Matthias Hofstätter Computer Science 7 (Computer Networks and Communication Systems) Kai-Steffen Hielscher Computer Science 7 (Computer Networks and Communication Systems) Reinhard German Computer Science 7 (Computer Networks and Communication Systems)

Related research project(s)

QUICOPTSAT Dec. 1, 2022 - Dec. 1, 2024

Involved external institutions

Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR) / German Aerospace Center DE Germany (DE) University of Aberdeen GB United Kingdom (GB)

How to cite

APA:

Hofstätter, M., Secchi, R., Fairhurst, G., de Cola, T., Hielscher, K.-S., & German, R. (2026). Restoring End‐to‐End Transport With QUIC on Satellite Paths. International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking. https://doi.org/10.1002/sat.70090

MLA:

Hofstätter, Matthias, et al. "Restoring End‐to‐End Transport With QUIC on Satellite Paths." International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking (2026).

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