Integrated Packet Level FEC Coding for Bulk Data Transfer over Satellite Networks

Packet level forward error correction (FEC) coding has been widely accepted as an efficient way of reducing the number of retransmissions and recovering from packet losses for reliable multicast in satellite networks. While there has been a significant effort in defining packet level FEC schemes that detail the structure, organization and delivery of the encoding packets, little attention has been given to how the physical channel, channel coding, and the downlink power budget affect the design space of these schemes in the context of a satellite network architecture. In this paper, we take a step in this direction, and define the points of interaction between various components and build a simulation environment. Using this simulation setup, we provide design suggestions for integrating FEC coding into reliable multicast transport protocols.