Empirical Sender-Side QUIC Parameter Tuning for Low Earth Orbit Satellite Networks

Abstract

Reliable, high-performance Internet connectivity over Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks faces challenges including packet loss, dynamic links, packet reordering, and environmental degradation, all of which can significantly affect download times in rural and remote areas. This paper presents an empirical evaluation of the QUIC transport protocol under systematic sender-side parameter tuning in an emulated LEO testbed. Key parameters related to buffering, flow control, congestion window limits, and acknowledgment timing are examined to assess their impact on large single-stream download completion time and sender CPU utilization. Unlike prior work focused on congestion control algorithms, forward error correction, or acknowledgment policies, this study systematically evaluates sender-side flow-control configuration parameters in isolation under emulated LEO conditions. Results indicate that default quic-go parameters are largely sufficient for large transfers, with most tuning offering limited performance benefit while increasing processing overhead. A moderate congestion window of 5000 packets reduced completion-time variance for larger transfers on clear links, representing the most notable finding.