On 3/5/2013 3:01 PM, Cameron Byrne wrote:
In the 3GPP case of GSM/UMTS/LTE, the wireless network will never drop
the packet, by design. It will just delay the packet as it gets
resent through various checkpoints and goes through various rounds of
FEC. The result is delay, TCP penalties that assume delay is loss,
... the end result is that every 3GPP network in the world (guessing)
has proxies in place to manipulate TCP so that when you go to
speedtest.net your $serviceprovider looks good. Is this good
cross-layer optimization, no... but this is how it is.
So, fundamentals of CC and TCP have resulted in commercial need for
middleboxes in the core of the fastest growing part of the internet.
This is sometimes known as "tcp optmization" or "WAN acceleration",
both murky terms.
There may be some things the IETF can do to improve this. It's not
clear yet, but some of the relevant vendors are participating in a
non-WG mailing list, focused on one aspect of the situation (TCP
option numbers), but recently more ambitious work was suggested:
http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/middisc/current/msg00121.html
People who are interested in this, should *definitely* self-organize
a bit and think about a BoF, in my opinion.
--
Wes Eddy
MTI Systems