QPEP: An Actionable Approach to Secure and Performant Broadband From Geostationary Orbit

Pavur, James; Strohmeier, Martin; Lenders, Vincent; Martinovic, Ivan

doi:10.14722/ndss.2021.24074

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In order to determine a typical one-way delay for LEO orbits, we perform ∼600k RTT measurements from a vantage point in Central Europe over a period of one week using Starlink [1], where we find a median first hop RTT of ∼32ms (mean ∼33ms). While we acknowledge that the first hop RTT in LEO constellations changes due to the movement of the satellites, we observe relatively constant RTTs for at least 30 consecutive seconds, which is in line with the observations of Kassing et al [25] and Pavur et al [14]. As our measurements do not exceed a duration of 20s, we set the SATCOM LEO one-way delay to a static value of 16ms (1/2 RTT).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Lastly, the attenuation is configured with 0dB, i.e., no signal damping, and the packet loss rate is chosen from 0, 0.01, 0.1, and 1%. While the transport layer loss is considered to range from nearly 0% (where almost all errors are corrected by the link-layer) up to 0.01% in real world satellite conditions [14], we include 0.1 and 1% loss conditions in order to evaluate edge cases.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We take a different approach to examine the impact of transport-layer optimizations on the performance of QUIC over GEO and LEO links by developing a proof-of-concept QUIC-PEP. Previous work on intermediaries with QUIC for SATCOM is sparse and the closest related work is from Pavur et al [14] on QPEP, who multiplex TCP connections over a single QUIC connection between ground terminals and thereby significantly reduce Page Load Times. They, however, study a long-standing QUIC connection and therefore exclude the connection setup.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Exploring Proxying QUIC and HTTP/3 for Satellite Communication

Kosek¹,

Cech²,

Bajpai³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Low-Earth Orbit satellites have gained momentum to provide Internet connectivity, augmenting those in the longestablished geostationary orbits. At the same time, QUIC has been developed as the new transport protocol for the web. While QUIC traffic is fully encrypted, intermediaries such as performance enhancing proxies (PEPs) -in the past essential for Internet over satellite performance -can no longer tamper with and optimize transport connections. In this paper, we present a satellite emulation testbed and use it to compare QUIC and TCP as well as HTTP/3 and HTTP/1.1 with and without minimal PEP functionality. Evaluating goodput over time, we find that the slow start threshold is reached up to 2s faster for QUIC PEP in comparison to QUIC Non-PEP. Moreover, we find that HTTP/3 and HTTP/3-PEP outperform HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/1.1-PEP in multiple web performance scenarios, where HTTP/3-PEP improves over HTTP/3 for Page Load Time by over 7s in edge cases. Hence, our findings hint that these performance gains may warrant exploring PEPs for QUIC.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Exploring Proxying QUIC and HTTP/3 for Satellite Communication

Kosek¹,

Cech²,

Bajpai³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Pavur et al [22] design and implement QPEP, an opensource PEP/VPN hybrid based on the QUIC standard that has the potential to encrypt all traffic over a satellite link. Their experiments show QPEP provides up to 72% faster page load times compared to traditional VPN encryption.…”

Section: A Performance Enhancing Proxiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of a Performance Enhancing Proxy on TCP Congestion Control over a Satellite Network

Liu

Porter

et al. 2022

2022 IEEE International Performance, Computing, and Communications Conference (IPCCC)

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Satellite networks often use Performance Enhancing Proxies (PEPs) in order to overcome the inherent high latencies that are detrimental to TCP throughputs. Measurements of TCP performance over Satellite PEPs are lacking, both for actual PEP benefits and for interactions between PEPs and TCP congestion control algorithms. This paper presents results from experiments that assess the benefits of a PEP for a commercial satellite network, considering four TCP congestion control algorithms: Cubic, BBR, Hybla and PCC. Without the PEP, the four algorithms have similar steady state throughputs (about 70 Mb/s), but significant differences in start-up throughputs. In particular, the PEP dramatically improves (3x) start-up throughputs for TCP Cubic -the default congestion control algorithm used by most Internet servers. Overall, the PEP equalizes performance irrespective of the TCP congestion control algorithm chosen.

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“…For the regular bubble, it would be possible to rely on transport/application layer security measures listed in Table V, but this still leaves open security threats that may be unacceptable to MC users. An alternative approach based on the QUIC protocol and specifically designed for the GEO satellite links, QPEP, has been proposed recently [146]. However, more work is needed, to verify its compatibility with the MC services and requirements.…”

Section: Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Securing Public Safety Communications on Commercial and Tactical 5G Networks: A Survey and Future Research Directions

Suomalainen

Julku

Vehkaperä

et al. 2021

IEEE Open J. Commun. Soc.

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The forthcoming communication networks for public safety authorities rely on the fifth generation (5G) of mobile networking technologies. Police officers, paramedics, border guards, as well as fire and rescue personnel, will connect through commercial operator's access network and rapidly deployable tactical bubbles. This transition from closed and dedicated infrastructure to hybrid architecture will expand the threat surface and expose mission-critical applications and sensitive information to cyber and physical adversaries. We explore and survey security architecture and enablers for prioritized public safety communication in 5G networks. We identify security threat scenarios and analyze enabling vulnerabilities, threat actors, attacks vectors, as well as risk levels. Security enablers are surveyed for tactical access and core networks, commercial infrastructure, and mission-critical applications, starting from push-to-talk and group video communication and leading to situational-awareness and remote-controlled systems. Two solutions are trialed and described in more detail: remote attestation enhanced access control for constrained devices, and securing of satellite backhauls. We also discuss future research directions highlighting the need for enablers to automate security of rapid deployments, for military-grade cost-effective customizations of commercial network services to ensure robustness, and for hardening of various types of public safety equipment.

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QPEP: An Actionable Approach to Secure and Performant Broadband From Geostationary Orbit

Cited by 12 publications

References 22 publications

Exploring Proxying QUIC and HTTP/3 for Satellite Communication

Exploring Proxying QUIC and HTTP/3 for Satellite Communication

The Effects of a Performance Enhancing Proxy on TCP Congestion Control over a Satellite Network

Securing Public Safety Communications on Commercial and Tactical 5G Networks: A Survey and Future Research Directions

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