Polar-QUIC: Adaptive Packet-Level Polar Coding-Assisted QUIC in Satellite Networks

Satellite networks are crucial for future 6G communications, offering global coverage. However, traditional Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) struggles with poor stability in dynamic satellite networks. In contrast, QUIC is capable of providing stability in such environments thanks to features like seamless connection migration. Nevertheless, the loss detection and recovery strategy of QUIC needs improvement in satellite networks with relatively high transmission errors. To address this, we propose Polar-QUIC, an adaptive packet-level polar coding-assisted QUIC scheme. By leveraging the robust error correction capabilities of polar codes, we design a packet-level encoder/decoder, loss detection tuning module, and adaptive redundancy module that combines packet loss rate and congestion window size. Experimental results demonstrate that Polar- QUIC effectively reduces the average Download Completion Time (DCT) of QUIC in satellite networks. Specifically, Polar-QUIC minimizes the average DCT by up to 35.8% and 74.5%, respectively, compared to general forward error correction schemes such as Reed-Solomon Codes and Random Linear Codes.