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
