LTP robustness enhancements to cope with high losses on space channels

This paper addresses the performance of Licklider Transmission Protocol (LTP) in space environments. We have observed that the loss of signaling segments can significantly increase the delivery time of LTP blocks, and potentially undermine overall LTP performance. To cope with this degradation, the paper proposes two simple enhancements which make the transmission of signaling data more robust. Both enhancements have been inserted as optional features in the Interplanetary Overlay Network LTP implementation, in order to evaluate their effectiveness on a GNU/Linux testbed running the full protocol stack. The preliminary results presented in the paper show that the proposed enhancements can significantly improve LTP performance in the presence of high losses with respect to regular LTP implementations.