Performance impact of ECN on multimedia traffic with satellite delay

Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) is a mechanism that can be used to provide early indication of impending Internet congestion, and as such can be used to reduce the latency and improve the throughput of applications using the Internet. This paper examines the impact of using ECN with Quality of Service classification for Internet paths that include a satellite delay. Specifically, it provides a practical analysis of the impact when multimedia applications using the User Datagram Protocol are transmitted over a network path for which ECN is enabled. Since ECN impacts the end-to-end performance, the paper discusses the effect of a larger path delay, as found in a satellite environment. The method is shown to offer benefit to a satellite operator and the network user.