Implications...
Posted: Apr 21st, '20, 21:45
Instances of my device control both ends of a very high latency communications channel. The communications across the channel are generally TCP protocol.
I have been asked by the provider of the communications channel if I could spoof TCP ACK packets at both ends of this channel in order to speed things up. Basically, the systems that are communicating over this link send their packets through my device then over the communications link. My device sees the incoming packets, analyzes them, and if appropriate sends an ACK back to the originating system thus spoofing the ordinary response to the packet and signaling that another packet can be sent.
This will speed up the communication at the cost of reducing its reliability.
Now, my answer to them is "yes, I can do this and it won't be particularly difficult. But, do you really want me to?"
So, I am interested in anyone's opinions here about the implications of spoofing ACK for this purpose. The implications I see are possibly getting the communications out of sync and forcing retransmits. Does anyone else see any other things?
I have been asked by the provider of the communications channel if I could spoof TCP ACK packets at both ends of this channel in order to speed things up. Basically, the systems that are communicating over this link send their packets through my device then over the communications link. My device sees the incoming packets, analyzes them, and if appropriate sends an ACK back to the originating system thus spoofing the ordinary response to the packet and signaling that another packet can be sent.
This will speed up the communication at the cost of reducing its reliability.
Now, my answer to them is "yes, I can do this and it won't be particularly difficult. But, do you really want me to?"
So, I am interested in anyone's opinions here about the implications of spoofing ACK for this purpose. The implications I see are possibly getting the communications out of sync and forcing retransmits. Does anyone else see any other things?