



Internet Research Task Force (IRTF)                         N. Kuhn, Ed.
Request for Comments: 8975                                          CNES
Category: Informational                                   E. Lochin, Ed.
ISSN: 2070-1721                                                     ENAC
                                                            January 2021


                  Network Coding for Satellite Systems

Abstract

   This document is a product of the Coding for Efficient Network
   Communications Research Group (NWCRG).  It conforms to the directions
   found in the NWCRG taxonomy (RFC 8406).

   The objective is to contribute to a larger deployment of Network
   Coding techniques in and above the network layer in satellite
   communication systems.  This document also identifies open research
   issues related to the deployment of Network Coding in satellite
   communication systems.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This document is a product of the Internet Research Task Force
   (IRTF).  The IRTF publishes the results of Internet-related research
   and development activities.  These results might not be suitable for
   deployment.  This RFC represents the consensus of the Coding for
   Efficient Network Communications Research Group of the Internet
   Research Task Force (IRTF).  Documents approved for publication by
   the IRSG are not a candidate for any level of Internet Standard; see
   Section 2 of RFC 7841.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8975.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2021 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction
   2.  A Note on the Topology of Satellite Networks
   3.  Use Cases for Improving SATCOM System Performance Using Network
           Coding
     3.1.  Two-Way Relay Channel Mode
     3.2.  Reliable Multicast
     3.3.  Hybrid Access
     3.4.  LAN Packet Losses
     3.5.  Varying Channel Conditions
     3.6.  Improving Gateway Handover
   4.  Research Challenges
     4.1.  Joint Use of Network Coding and Congestion Control in
           SATCOM Systems
     4.2.  Efficient Use of Satellite Resources
     4.3.  Interaction with Virtualized Satellite Gateways and
           Terminals
     4.4.  Delay/Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN)
   5.  Conclusion
   6.  Glossary
   7.  IANA Considerations
   8.  Security Considerations
   9.  Informative References
   Acknowledgements
   Authors' Addresses

1.  Introduction

   This document is a product of and represents the collaborative work
   and consensus of the Coding for Efficient Network Communications
   Research Group (NWCRG); while it is not an IETF product and not a
   standard, it is intended to inform the SATellite COMmunication
   (SATCOM) and Internet research communities about recent developments
   in Network Coding.  A glossary is included in Section 6 to clarify
   the terminology used throughout the document.

   As will be shown in this document, the implementation of Network
   Coding techniques above the network layer, at application or
   transport layers (as described in [RFC1122]), offers an opportunity
   for improving the end-to-end performance of SATCOM systems.
   Physical- and link-layer coding error protection is usually enough to
   provide quasi-error-free transmission, thus minimizing packet loss.
   However, when residual errors at those layers cause packet losses,
   retransmissions add significant delays (in particular, in
   geostationary systems with over 0.7 second round-trip delays).
   Hence, the use of Network Coding at the upper layers can improve the
   quality of service in SATCOM subnetworks and eventually favorably
   impact the experience of end users.

   While there is an active research community working on Network Coding
   techniques above the network layer in general and in SATCOM in
   particular, not much of this work has been deployed in commercial
   systems.  In this context, this document identifies opportunities for
   further usage of Network Coding in commercial SATCOM networks.

   The notation used in this document is based on the NWCRG taxonomy
   [RFC8406]:

   *  Channel and link error-correcting codes are considered part of the
      error protection for the PHYsical (PHY) layer and are out of the
      scope of this document.

   *  Forward Erasure Correction (FEC) (also called "Application-Level
      FEC") operates above the link layer and targets packet-loss
      recovery.

   *  This document considers only coding (or coding techniques or
      coding schemes) that uses a linear combination of packets; it
      excludes, for example, content coding (e.g., to compress a video
      flow) or other non-linear operations.

2.  A Note on the Topology of Satellite Networks

   There are multiple SATCOM systems, for example, broadcast TV, point-
   to point-communication, and Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring.
   Therefore, depending on the purpose of the system, the associated
   ground segment architecture will be different.  This section focuses
   on a satellite system that follows the European Telecommunications
   Standards Institute (ETSI) Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standards
   to provide broadband Internet access via ground-based gateways
   [ETSI-EN-2020].  One must note that the overall data capacity of one
   satellite may be higher than the capacity that one single gateway
   supports.  Hence, there are usually multiple gateways for one unique
   satellite platform.

   In this context, Figure 1 shows an example of a multigateway
   satellite system, where BBFRAME stands for "Base-Band FRAME", PLFRAME
   for "Physical Layer FRAME", and PEP for "Performance Enhancing
   Proxy".  More information on a generic SATCOM ground segment
   architecture for bidirectional Internet access can be found in
   [SAT2017] or in DVB standard documents.

   +--------------------------+
   | application servers      |
   | (data, coding, multicast)|
   +--------------------------+
          | ... |
          -----------------------------------
          |     |   |             |   |     |
   +---------------------+     +---------------------+
   | network function    |     | network function    |
   |(firewall, PEP, etc.)|     |(firewall, PEP, etc.)|
   +---------------------+     +---------------------+
       | ... | IP packets             |  ...   |
                                                   ---
   +------------------+         +------------------+ |
   | access gateway   |         | access gateway   | |
   +------------------+         +------------------+ |
          | BBFRAME                         |        | gateway
   +------------------+         +------------------+ |
   | physical gateway |         | physical gateway | |
   +------------------+         +------------------+ |
                                                   ---
          | PLFRAME                         |
   +------------------+         +------------------+
   | outdoor unit     |         | outdoor unit     |
   +------------------+         +------------------+
          | satellite link                  |
   +------------------+         +------------------+
   | outdoor unit     |         | outdoor unit     |
   +------------------+         +------------------+
          |                                 |
   +------------------+         +------------------+
   | sat terminals    |         | sat terminals    |
   +------------------+         +------------------+
          |        |                  |        |
   +----------+    |            +----------+   |
   |end user 1|    |            |end user 3|   |
   +----------+    |            +----------+   |
             +----------+               +----------+
             |end user 2|               |end user 4|
             +----------+               +----------+

           Figure 1: Data-Plane Functions in a Generic Satellite
                            Multigateway System

3.  Use Cases for Improving SATCOM System Performance Using Network
    Coding

   This section details use cases where Network Coding techniques could
   improve SATCOM system performance.

3.1.  Two-Way Relay Channel Mode

   This use case considers two-way communication between end users
   through a satellite link, as seen in Figure 2.

   Satellite terminal A sends a packet flow A, and satellite terminal B
   sends a packet flow B, to a coding server.  The coding server then
   sends a combination of both flows instead of each individual flow.
   This results in non-negligible capacity savings, which has been
   demonstrated in the past [ASMS2010].  In the example, a dedicated
   coding server is introduced (note that its location could be
   different based on deployment use case).  The Network Coding
   operations could also be done at the satellite level, although this
   would require a lot of computational resources onboard and may not be
   supported by today's satellites.

   -X}-   : traffic from satellite terminal X to the server
   ={X+Y= : traffic from X and Y combined sent from
            the server to terminals X and Y

   +-----------+        +-----+
   |Sat term A |--A}-+  |     |
   +-----------+     |  |     |      +---------+      +------+
       ^^            +--|     |--A}--|         |--A}--|Coding|
       ||               | SAT |--B}--| Gateway |--B}--|Server|
       ===={A+B=========|     |={A+B=|         |={A+B=|      |
       ||               |     |      +---------+      +------+
       vv            +--|     |
   +-----------+     |  |     |
   |Sat term B |--B}-+  |     |
   +-----------+        +-----+

       Figure 2: Network Architecture for Two-Way Relay Channel Using
                               Network Coding

3.2.  Reliable Multicast

   The use of multicast servers is one way to better utilize satellite
   broadcast capabilities.  As one example, satellite-based multicast is
   proposed in the Secure Hybrid In Network caching Environment (SHINE)
   project of the European Space Agency (ESA) [NETCOD-FUNCTION-VIRT]
   [SHINE].  This use case considers adding redundancy to a multicast
   flow depending on what has been received by different end users,
   resulting in non-negligible savings of the scarce SATCOM resources.
   This scenario is shown in Figure 3.

   -Li}- : packet indicating the loss of packet i of a multicast flow M
   ={M== : multicast flow including the missing packets

   +-----------+       +-----+
   |Terminal A |-Li}-+ |     |
   +-----------+     | |     |      +---------+  +------+
       ^^            +-|     |-Li}--|         |  |Multi |
       ||              | SAT |-Lj}--| Gateway |--|Cast  |
       ===={M==========|     |={M===|         |  |Server|
       ||              |     |      +---------+  +------+
       vv            +-|     |
   +-----------+     | |     |
   |Terminal B |-Lj}-+ |     |
   +-----------+       +-----+

       Figure 3: Network Architecture for a Reliable Multicast Using
                               Network Coding

   A multicast flow (M) is forwarded to both satellite terminals A and
   B.  M is composed of packets Nk (not shown in Figure 3).  Packet Ni
   (respectively Nj) gets lost at terminal A (respectively B), and
   terminal A (respectively B) returns a negative acknowledgment Li
   (respectively Lj), indicating that the packet is missing.  Using
   coding, either the access gateway or the multicast server can include
   a repair packet (rather than the individual Ni and Nj packets) in the
   multicast flow to let both terminals recover from losses.

   This could also be achieved by using other multicast or broadcast
   systems, such as NACK-Oriented Reliable Multicast (NORM) [RFC5740] or
   File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE) [RFC6726].  Both
   NORM and FLUTE are limited to block coding; neither of them supports
   more flexible sliding window encoding schemes that allow decoding
   before receiving the whole block, which is an added delay benefit
   [RFC8406] [RFC8681].

3.3.  Hybrid Access

   This use case considers improving multiple-path communications with
   Network Coding at the transport layer (see Figure 4, where DSL stands
   for "Digital Subscriber Line", LTE for "Long Term Evolution", and SAT
   for "SATellite").  This use case is inspired by the Broadband Access
   via Integrated Terrestrial Satellite Systems (BATS) project and has
   been published as an ETSI Technical Report [ETSI-TR-2017].

   To cope with packet loss (due to either end-user mobility or
   physical-layer residual errors), Network Coding can be introduced.
   Depending on the protocol, Network Coding could be applied at the
   Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), the concentrator, or both.  Apart
   from coping with packet loss, other benefits of this approach include
   a better tolerance for out-of-order packet delivery, which occurs
   when exploited links exhibit high asymmetry in terms of Round-Trip
   Time (RTT).  Depending on the ground architecture [5G-CORE-YANG]
   [SAT2017], some ground equipment might be hosting both SATCOM and
   cellular network functionality.

   -{}- : bidirectional link

                           +---+    +--------------+
                      +-{}-|SAT|-{}-|BACKBONE      |
   +----+    +---+    |    +---+    |+------------+|
   |End |-{}-|CPE|-{}-|             ||CONCENTRATOR||
   |User|    +---+    |    +---+    |+------------+|    +-----------+
   +----+             |-{}-|DSL|-{}-|              |-{}-|Application|
                      |    +---+    |              |    |Server     |
                      |             |              |    +-----------+
                      |    +---+    |              |
                      +-{}-|LTE|-{}-+--------------+
                           +---+

   Figure 4: Network Architecture for Hybrid Access Using Network Coding

3.4.  LAN Packet Losses

   This use case considers using Network Coding in the scenario where a
   lossy WiFi link is used to connect to the SATCOM network.  When
   encrypted end-to-end applications based on UDP are used, a
   Performance Enhancing Proxy (PEP) cannot operate; hence, other
   mechanisms need to be used.  The WiFi packet losses will result in an
   end-to-end retransmission that will harm the quality of the end
   user's experience and poorly utilize SATCOM bottleneck resources for
   traffic that does not generate revenue.  In this use case, adding
   Network Coding techniques will prevent the end-to-end retransmission
   from occurring since the packet losses would probably be recovered.

   The architecture is shown in Figure 5.

   -{}- : bidirectional link
   -''- : WiFi link
   C : where Network Coding techniques could be introduced

   +----+    +--------+    +---+    +-------+    +-------+    +--------+
   |End |    |Sat.    |    |SAT|    |Phy    |    |Access |    |Network |
   |user|-''-|Terminal|-{}-|   |-{}-|Gateway|-{}-|Gateway|-{}-|Function|
   +----+    +--------+    +---+    +-------+    +-------+    +--------+
      C          C                                  C            C

         Figure 5: Network Architecture for Dealing with LAN Losses

3.5.  Varying Channel Conditions

   This use case considers the usage of Network Coding to cope with
   subsecond physical channel condition changes where the physical-layer
   mechanisms (Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM)) may not adapt the
   modulation and error-correction coding in time; the residual errors
   lead to higher-layer packet losses that can be recovered with Network
   Coding.  This use case is mostly relevant when mobile users are
   considered or when the satellite frequency band introduces quick
   changes in channel condition (Q/V bands, Ka band, etc.).  Depending
   on the use case (e.g., bands with very high frequency, mobile users),
   the relevance of adding Network Coding is different.

   The system architecture is shown in Figure 6.

   -{}- : bidirectional link
   C : where Network Coding techniques could be introduced

   +---------+    +---+    +--------+    +-------+    +--------+
   |Satellite|    |SAT|    |Physical|    |Access |    |Network |
   |Terminal |-{}-|   |-{}-|Gateway |-{}-|Gateway|-{}-|Function|
   +---------+    +---+    +--------+    +-------+    +--------+
        C                       C            C           C

        Figure 6: Network Architecture for Dealing with Varying Link
                              Characteristics

3.6.  Improving Gateway Handover

   This use case considers the recovery of packets that may be lost
   during gateway handover.  Whether for off-loading a given equipment
   or because the transmission quality differs from gateway to gateway,
   switching the transmission gateway may be beneficial.  However,
   packet losses can occur if the gateways are not properly synchronized
   or if the algorithm used to trigger gateway handover is not properly
   tuned.  During these critical phases, Network Coding can be added to
   improve the reliability of the transmission and allow a seamless
   gateway handover.

   Figure 7 illustrates this use case.

   -{}- : bidirectional link
   ! : management interface
   C : where Network Coding techniques could be introduced
                                           C             C
                         +--------+    +-------+    +--------+
                         |Physical|    |Access |    |Network |
                    +-{}-|gateway |-{}-|gateway|-{}-|function|
                    |    +--------+    +-------+    +--------+
                    |                        !       !
   +---------+    +---+              +---------------+
   |Satellite|    |SAT|              | Control-plane |
   |Terminal |-{}-|   |              | manager       |
   +---------+    +---+              +---------------+
                    |                        !       !
                    |    +--------+    +-------+    +--------+
                    +-{}-|Physical|-{}-|Access |-{}-|Network |
                         |gateway |    |gateway|    |function|
                         +--------+    +-------+    +--------+
                                           C             C

      Figure 7: Network Architecture for Dealing with Gateway Handover

4.  Research Challenges

   This section proposes a few potential approaches to introducing and
   using Network Coding in SATCOM systems.

4.1.  Joint Use of Network Coding and Congestion Control in SATCOM
      Systems

   Many SATCOM systems typically use Performance Enhancing Proxy (PEP)
   [RFC3135].  PEPs usually split end-to-end connections and forward
   transport or application-layer packets to the satellite baseband
   gateway.  PEPs contribute to mitigating congestion in a SATCOM system
   by limiting the impact of long delays on Internet protocols.  A PEP
   mechanism could also include Network Coding operation and thus
   support the use cases that have been discussed in Section 3 of this
   document.

   Deploying Network Coding in the PEP could be relevant and independent
   from the specifics of a SATCOM link.  This, however, leads to
   research questions dealing with the potential interaction between
   Network Coding and congestion control.  This is discussed in
   [NWCRG-CODING].

4.2.  Efficient Use of Satellite Resources

   There is a recurrent trade-off in SATCOM systems: how much overhead
   from redundant reliability packets can be introduced to guarantee a
   better end-user Quality of Experience (QoE) while optimizing capacity
   usage?  At which layer should this supplementary redundancy be added?

   This problem has been tackled in the past by the deployment of
   physical-layer error-correction codes, but questions remain on
   adapting the coding overhead and added delay for, e.g., the quickly
   varying channel conditions use case where ACM may not be reacting
   quickly enough, as discussed in Section 3.5.  A higher layer with
   Network Coding does not react more quickly than the physical layer,
   but it may operate over a packet-based time window that is larger
   than the physical one.

4.3.  Interaction with Virtualized Satellite Gateways and Terminals

   In the emerging virtualized network infrastructure, Network Coding
   could be easily deployed as Virtual Network Functions (VNFs).  The
   next generation of SATCOM ground segments will rely on a virtualized
   environment to integrate with terrestrial networks.  This trend
   towards Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is also central to 5G
   and next-generation cellular networks, making this research
   applicable to other deployment scenarios [5G-CORE-YANG].  As one
   example, Network Coding VNF deployment in a virtualized environment
   has been presented in [NETCOD-FUNCTION-VIRT].

   A research challenge would be the optimization of the NFV service
   function chaining, considering a virtualized infrastructure and other
   SATCOM-specific functions, in order to guarantee efficient radio-link
   usage and provide easy-to-deploy SATCOM services.  Moreover, another
   challenge related to virtualized SATCOM equipment is the management
   of limited buffered capacities in large gateways.

4.4.  Delay/Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN)

   Communications among deep-space platforms and terrestrial gateways
   can be a challenge.  Reliable end-to-end (E2E) communications over
   such paths must cope with very long delays and frequent link
   disruptions; indeed, E2E connectivity may only be available
   intermittently, if at all.  Delay/Disruption-Tolerant Networking
   (DTN) [RFC4838] is a solution to enable reliable internetworking
   space communications where neither standard ad hoc routing nor E2E
   Internet protocols can be used.  Moreover, DTN can also be seen as an
   alternative solution to transfer data between a central PEP and a
   remote PEP.

   Network Coding enables E2E reliable communications over a DTN with
   potential adaptive re-encoding, as proposed in [THAI15].  Here, the
   use case proposed in Section 3.5 would encourage the usage of Network
   Coding within the DTN stack to improve utilization of the physical
   channel and minimize the effects of the E2E transmission delays.  In
   this context, the use of packet erasure coding techniques inside a
   Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) architecture
   has been specified in [CCSDS-131.5-O-1].  One research challenge
   remains: how such Network Coding can be integrated in the IETF DTN
   stack.

5.  Conclusion

   This document introduces some wide-scale Network Coding technique
   opportunities in satellite telecommunications systems.

   Even though this document focuses on satellite systems, it is worth
   pointing out that some scenarios proposed here may be relevant to
   other wireless telecommunication systems.  As one example, the
   generic architecture proposed in Figure 1 may be mapped onto cellular
   networks as follows: the 'network function' block gathers some of the
   functions of the Evolved Packet Core subsystem, while the 'access
   gateway' and 'physical gateway' blocks gather the same type of
   functions as the Universal Mobile Terrestrial Radio Access Network.
   This mapping extends the opportunities identified in this document,
   since they may also be relevant for cellular networks.

6.  Glossary

   The glossary of this memo extends the definitions of the taxonomy
   document [RFC8406] as follows:

   ACM:        Adaptive Coding and Modulation

   BBFRAME:    Base-Band FRAME -- satellite communication Layer 2
               encapsulation works as follows: (1) each Layer 3 packet
               is encapsulated with a Generic Stream Encapsulation (GSE)
               mechanism, (2) GSE packets are gathered to create
               BBFRAMEs, (3) BBFRAMEs contain information related to how
               they have to be modulated, and (4) BBFRAMEs are forwarded
               to the physical layer.

   COM:        COMmunication

   CPE:        Customer Premises Equipment

   DSL:        Digital Subscriber Line

   DTN:        Delay/Disruption-Tolerant Networking

   DVB:        Digital Video Broadcasting

   E2E:        End-to-End

   ETSI:       European Telecommunications Standards Institute

   FEC:        Forward Erasure Correction

   FLUTE:      File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport [RFC6726]

   IntraF:     Intra-Flow Coding

   InterF:     Inter-Flow Coding

   IoT:        Internet of Things

   LTE:        Long Term Evolution

   MPC:        Multi-Path Coding

   NC:         Network Coding

   NFV:        Network Function Virtualization -- concept of running
               software-defined network functions

   NORM:       NACK-Oriented Reliable Multicast [RFC5740]

   PEP:        Performance Enhancing Proxy [RFC3135] -- a typical PEP
               for satellite communications includes compression,
               caching, TCP ACK spoofing, and specific congestion-
               control tuning.

   PLFRAME:    Physical Layer FRAME -- modulated version of a BBFRAME
               with additional information (e.g., related to
               synchronization)

   QEF:        Quasi-Error-Free

   QoE:        Quality of Experience

   QoS:        Quality of Service

   RTT:        Round-Trip Time

   SAT:        SATellite

   SATCOM:     Generic term related to all kinds of SATellite-
               COMmunication systems

   SPC:        Single-Path Coding

   VNF:        Virtual Network Function -- implementation of a network
               function using software.

7.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA actions.

8.  Security Considerations

   Security considerations are inherent to any access network, in
   particular SATCOM systems.  As with cellular networks, over-the-air
   data can be encrypted using, e.g., the algorithms in [ETSI-TS-2011].
   Because the operator may not enable this [SSP-2020], the applications
   should apply cryptographic protection.  The use of FEC or Network
   Coding in SATCOM comes with risks (e.g., a single corrupted redundant
   packet may propagate to several flows when they are protected
   together in an interflow coding approach; see Section 3).  While this
   document does not further elaborate on this, the security
   considerations discussed in [RFC6363] apply.

9.  Informative References

   [5G-CORE-YANG]
              Chen, C. and A. Pan, "Yang Data Model for Cloud Native 5G
              Core structure", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-
              chin-nfvrg-cloud-5g-core-structure-yang-00, 28 December
              2017, <https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-chin-nfvrg-cloud-
              5g-core-structure-yang-00>.

   [ASMS2010] "Demonstration at opening session of ASMS 2010", 5th
              Advanced Satellite Multimedia Systems (ASMS) Conference,
              2010.

   [CCSDS-131.5-O-1]
              The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems,
              "Erasure Correcting Codes for Use in Near-Earth and Deep-
              Space Communications", Experimental Specification
              CCSDS 131.5-0-1, November 2014.

   [ETSI-EN-2020]
              ETSI, "Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Second Generation
              DVB Interactive Satellite System (DVB-RCS2); Part 2: Lower
              Layers for Satellite standard", ETSI EN 301 545-2 V1.3.1,
              July 2020.

   [ETSI-TR-2017]
              ETSI, "Satellite Earth Stations and Systems (SES); Multi-
              link routing scheme in hybrid access network with
              heterogeneous links", ETSI TR 103 351 V1.1.1, July 2017.

   [ETSI-TS-2011]
              ETSI, "Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Content
              Protection and Copy Management (DVB-CPCM); Part 5: CPCM
              Security Toolbox", ETSI TS 102 825-5 V1.2.1, February
              2011.

   [NETCOD-FUNCTION-VIRT]
              Vazquez-Castro, M., Do-Duy, T., Romano, S. P., and A. M.
              Tulino, "Network Coding Function Virtualization", Work in
              Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-vazquez-nfvrg-netcod-
              function-virtualization-02, 16 November 2017,
              <https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-vazquez-nfvrg-netcod-
              function-virtualization-02>.

   [NWCRG-CODING]
              Kuhn, N., Lochin, E., Michel, F., and M. Welzl, "Coding
              and congestion control in transport", Work in Progress,
              Internet-Draft, draft-irtf-nwcrg-coding-and-congestion-04,
              30 October 2020, <https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-irtf-
              nwcrg-coding-and-congestion-04>.

   [RFC1122]  Braden, R., Ed., "Requirements for Internet Hosts -
              Communication Layers", STD 3, RFC 1122,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC1122, October 1989,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1122>.

   [RFC3135]  Border, J., Kojo, M., Griner, J., Montenegro, G., and Z.
              Shelby, "Performance Enhancing Proxies Intended to
              Mitigate Link-Related Degradations", RFC 3135,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC3135, June 2001,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3135>.

   [RFC4838]  Cerf, V., Burleigh, S., Hooke, A., Torgerson, L., Durst,
              R., Scott, K., Fall, K., and H. Weiss, "Delay-Tolerant
              Networking Architecture", RFC 4838, DOI 10.17487/RFC4838,
              April 2007, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4838>.

   [RFC5740]  Adamson, B., Bormann, C., Handley, M., and J. Macker,
              "NACK-Oriented Reliable Multicast (NORM) Transport
              Protocol", RFC 5740, DOI 10.17487/RFC5740, November 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5740>.

   [RFC6363]  Watson, M., Begen, A., and V. Roca, "Forward Error
              Correction (FEC) Framework", RFC 6363,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6363, October 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6363>.

   [RFC6726]  Paila, T., Walsh, R., Luby, M., Roca, V., and R. Lehtonen,
              "FLUTE - File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport",
              RFC 6726, DOI 10.17487/RFC6726, November 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6726>.

   [RFC8406]  Adamson, B., Adjih, C., Bilbao, J., Firoiu, V., Fitzek,
              F., Ghanem, S., Lochin, E., Masucci, A., Montpetit, M-J.,
              Pedersen, M., Peralta, G., Roca, V., Ed., Saxena, P., and
              S. Sivakumar, "Taxonomy of Coding Techniques for Efficient
              Network Communications", RFC 8406, DOI 10.17487/RFC8406,
              June 2018, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8406>.

   [RFC8681]  Roca, V. and B. Teibi, "Sliding Window Random Linear Code
              (RLC) Forward Erasure Correction (FEC) Schemes for
              FECFRAME", RFC 8681, DOI 10.17487/RFC8681, January 2020,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8681>.

   [SAT2017]  Ahmed, T., Dubois, E., Dupé, JB., Ferrús, R., Gélard, P.,
              and N. Kuhn, "Software-defined satellite cloud RAN",
              International Journal of Satellite Communications and
              Networking, Vol. 36, DOI 10.1002/sat.1206, 2 February
              2017, <https://doi.org/10.1002/sat.1206>.

   [SHINE]    Romano, S., Roseti, C., and A. Tulino, "SHINE: Secure
              Hybrid In Network caching Environment", International
              Symposium on Networks, Computers and Communications
              (ISNCC), DOI 10.1109/ISNCC.2018.8530996, June 2018,
              <https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8530996>.

   [SSP-2020] Pavur, J., Moser, D., Strohmeier, M., Lenders, V., and I.
              Martinovic, "A Tale of Sea and Sky On the Security of
              Maritime VSAT Communications", IEEE Symposium on Security
              and Privacy, DOI 10.1109/SP40000.2020.00056, 2020,
              <https://doi.org/10.1109/SP40000.2020.00056>.

   [THAI15]   Thai, T., Chaganti, V., Lochin, E., Lacan, J., Dubois, E.,
              and P. Gelard, "Enabling E2E reliable communications with
              adaptive re-encoding over Delay Tolerant Networks", IEEE
              International Conference on Communications,
              DOI 10.1109/ICC.2015.7248441, June 2015,
              <https://doi.org/10.1109/ICC.2015.7248441>.

Acknowledgements

   Many thanks to John Border, Stuart Card, Tomaso de Cola, Marie-Jose
   Montpetit, Vincent Roca, and Lloyd Wood for their help in writing
   this document.

Authors' Addresses

   Nicolas Kuhn (editor)
   CNES
   18 avenue Edouard Belin
   31400 Toulouse
   France

   Email: nicolas.kuhn@cnes.fr


   Emmanuel Lochin (editor)
   ENAC
   7 avenue Edouard Belin
   31400 Toulouse
   France

   Email: emmanuel.lochin@enac.fr
