GSE: A flexible, yet efficient, encapsulation for IP over DVB-S2 continuous generic streams

The second‐generation specification for Digital Video Broadcast over Satellite, DVB‐S2, defines an improved and adaptive physical layer. A new framing structure at the link layer, known as the generic stream (GS), is introduced offering an alternative to the well‐known MPEG transport stream (TS). This paper presents the requirements for and the design of an encapsulation protocol to transport IPv4 and IPv6 datagrams and other network protocol packets directly over DVB‐S2 using this GS profile. The resulting generic stream encapsulation (GSE) is a novel method that provides flexible encapsulation with support for fragmentation. A flexible extension header format allows GSE to carry additional header information, suitable for enhanced features, such as link layer encryption and IP header compression. The paper assesses GSE performance by simulation using realistic traffic profiles and attenuation fading. This demonstrates considerable improvement in efficiency compared with the MPE/MPEG‐2 TS, especially when used with adaptive coding and modulation (ACM). Although designed for DVB‐S2 systems, the new encapsulation is suitable for other second‐generation physical layer standards. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.