Interactions Among Ionospheric Propagation, HF Modems, and Data Protocols

The well-known challenges in using the ionospheric skywave channel for data communications have been increasingly well-addressed by recent generations of HF data modems and link protocols. However, the means used to cope with the skywave channel present unusual challenges to Internet-style networkand application-layer protocols, which have been designed with reliable, high-bandwidth channels in mind. In this paper, we explore the interactions among the skywave channel, HF data modems, data link protocols, and the higher-layer protocols, and identify the promising features that will form the basis of reliable Internet operation via next-generation HF radio networks.