VPN over satellite: Performance improving of E2E secured TCP flows

Abstract

A unique characteristic of satellite networks, lying in their high Latency and high bit error rate, is their use of PEPs to improve the performance of some protocols such as TCP. However usage of end-to-end IPSec algorithms in VPNs, affects the TCP PEP's function as the encryption schemes hide the TCP header. One approach applicable to TCP PEPs is to generate a cryptographic hash of flow identification information. We propose a header compression method to improve the performance of the satellite based VPNs, using a similar hash value. Our approach also facilitates the TCP PEP and end-to-end IPSec coexistence.