  Machine-to-machine services are witnessing an unprecedented diffusion, which
is expected to result in an ever-increasing data traffic load. In this context,
satellite technology is playing a pivotal role, since it enables a widespread
provisioning of machine-to-machine services. In particular, oil industry,
maritime communications, as well as remote monitoring are sectors where the use
of satellite communications is expected to dramatically explode within the next
few years. In the light of this sudden increase of machine-to-machine data
transported over satellite, a more thorough understanding of machine-to-machine
service implementation over satellite is required, especially focusing on the
interaction between transport and MAC layers of the protocol stack. Starting
from these observations, this paper thoroughly analyses the interaction between
TCP and the Contention Resolution Diversity Slotted Aloha access scheme defined
in the DVB-RCS2 standard, assuming the use of an MQTT-like protocol to
distribute machine-to-machine services. A novel TCP model is developed and
validated through extensive simulation campaigns, which also shed important
lights on the design choices enabling the efficient transport of
machine-to-machine data via satellite.
