SBIR Phase II: Advanced Proxies for Shared Wireless Internet Access

This Small Business Innovation Research Program Phase II project will develop advanced forms of transparent network proxies for both satellite and terrestrial broadband wireless communications to the Internet. Shared wireless access links to the Internet often exhibit what has been called a traffic / cost anomaly. While almost 90% of the traffic in the network can flow from the Internet to the user, almost 90% of the cost of the access links can be attributed to the channel transmitting packets from the user to the Internet. Wireless Internet access from the user to the Internet is often implemented by means of some variation of a random access ALOHA channel. The interaction of ALOHA channels with TCP and other high level protocols used in the Internet can limit the effectiveness of both TCP and ALOHA for such access. The goal of this NSF SBIR research program is to understand this awkward interaction of standards in the high cost random access channel and to develop a strategy of migration to a more sensible access architecture based upon transparent proxies. The societal and commercial impact of this project will be to increase the capacity of broadband wireless Internet multiple access channels thereby decreasing the cost per user of the channel. This decrease in the cost per user when shared with customers can increase the market for broadband wireless access to the Internet while increasing the profitability for wireless Internet Service Providers. These fast proxies will make wireless Internet access affordable for under-served and un-served end users in rural areas in the United States and in much of the rest of the world. Additionally the technical innovations of this research will serve to advance the current level of understanding of how TCP/IP protocols interact with other protocols in wireless data networks.