Ku-Band satellite data networks using very small aperture terminals—part I: Multi-access protocols

This two-part paper presents a comprehensive overview on the technology of very small aperture terminal (VSAT)-based satellite data networks, which have received increasing attention in recent years because of a combination of technical and economic factors. Ku-band networks with customer-premise earth-stations can overcome the inherent local access bottleneck in wide-area terrestrial data networks by suitably exploiting the unique multi-access and broadcast features of satellite communication. In this part of the paper, the issue of multiple access, which is an important critical path technology in the ongoing evolution of VSAT data networks, is considered in detail. Satellite multi-access protocols are classified in terms of channel synchronization (slotted and unslotted) and the qualitative nature of message access (fixed assigned, contention and reservation). In addition to well known techniques such as ALOHA, slotted ALOHA, tree CRA, packet CDMA and demand assigned (DAMA) TDMA, a number of new approaches to efficient unslotted access, including selective reject (SREJ) ALOHA, time-of-arrival CRA and locally synchronous reservation, are discussed. The general review is followed by a detailed performance comparison of a number of candidate first-generation VSAT protocols, namely ALOHA, slotted ALOHA, SREJ-ALOHA, DAMA with TDMA reservation access and DAMA with slotted ALOHA reservation access. The performance evaluation, based on detailed simulations with VSAT equipment and transaction traffic parameters, is summarized by curves of average delay and throughput vs. number of VSATs per channel for each of the protocols considered. Higher-order differences in delay performance are illustrated with appropriate delay distribution results and the sensitivity of performance with respect to key equipment and traffic parameters is investigated. For the transaction traffic model under consideration, the results suggest the use of SREJ-ALOHA among contention techniques or DAMA with slotted ALOHA reservation among controlled access alternatives. The trade-off between contention and reservation access is shown to be more complex, depending on the combination of average delay, peak delay, transmission cost and equipment complexity suited to the particular application. In Part II

1 To published in the next issue

of this paper on Ku-band VSAT networks, the issue of overall system design is considered.     

Packet CDMA versus dynamic TDMA for multiple access in anintegrated voice/data PCN

A comparative evaluation of dynamic time-division multiple access (TDMA) and spread-spectrum packet code-division multiple access (CDMA) approaches to multiple access in an integrated voice/data personal communications network (PCN) environment are presented. After briefly outlining a cellular packet-switching architecture for voice/data PCN systems, dynamic TDMA and packet CDMA protocols appropriate for such traffic scenarios are described. Simulation-based network models which have been developed for performance evaluation of these competing access techniques are then outlined. These models are exercised with example integrated voice/data traffic models to obtain comparative system performance measures such as channel utilization, voice blocking probability, and data delay. Operating points based on typical performance constraints such as voice blocking probability 0.01 (for TDMA), voice packet loss rate 10^-3 (for CDMA), and data delay 250 ms are obtained, and results are presented     

A Medium Access Control Protocol for Real Time Video over High Latency Satellite Channels

We report the results of extensive simulation work on a new satellite medium access control (MAC) protocol for medium quality interactive video. This MAC protocol uses combined random access/demand assigned multiple access (RA/DAMA). The underlying multiple access physical layer is time division multiple access (TDMA). The RA/DAMA MAC seeks to adaptively minimize the delay of each network layer (nl) packet that arrives to the output queue by transmitting packets on either a collision free demand assigned channel or on a collision possible random access channel. Combined with this dual channel transmission method is a new technique for acquiring demand assigned bandwidth, called a packet flow rate metric (PFRM). This metric seeks to track the slow time behavior of video traffic, leading to a significant reduction in the amount of DAMA signaling. All simulations were conducted using SMACS, the Satellite Medium Access Control Simulator [4], a simulation tool built into ns-2.0 (network simulator version 2) [10]. This simulation tool allowed us to evaluate our MAC protocol using an actual 2 hour long video trace rather than a parametric video traffic generator. Our results show that if light packet loss is tolerable (less than 3%), then significantly lower delays and higher link utilization can be achieved.     

Cost-effective networking via digital satellite communications

This paper presents the major issues in forming a cost-effective and efficient network from a set of earth stations sharing the satellite resource. The discussion is in the context of satisfying the performance requirements for transmission of data, voice, and image presented to earth stations in digital form. Multiple access techniques have significant impacts on the network economy. Although wide-band single-carrier time-division multiple access (TDMA) uses the satellite capacity efficiently and is cost-effective for networks with large traffic volumes per node, it requires expensive earth stations and is not cost-effective for networks with small traffic volumes per node. The concept of multicarrier-TDMA (MC-TDMA) is described and its economic advantage over TDMA is demonstrated for networks with dispersed points of traffic origination. Application of demand assignment to MC-TDMA is also presented. Some implementation issues are also discussed.     

Network Control for Multibeam TDMA and SS/TDMA

This paper concentrates on the control of individual burst transmissions of traffic and reference stations in TDMA and SS/ TDMA networks. In a TDMA system, the principal task of a TDMA terminal is to transmit each burst at the proper time to assure that, at the satellite, the burst resides in its assigned location in the TDMA frame. The composite of assigned positions for all bursts in the TDMA frame, or frames if more than one transponder is involved, is called the burst time plan. The paper discusses a specific concept of control used by a station to acquire and synchronize its burst transmission to assigned time slot(s) in the TDMA frame. The concept is applied to single-beam (global or regional) and muitibeam systems. The method used controls the instant of traffic burst transmission by introducing a time delay at each station which causes the round-trip propagation time between the satellite and all earth stations to be equal for burst position control purposes. This time delay is simple to implement in the TDMA terminal's timing circuitry and does not require the storage of traffic to accomplish it. It is also shown that the control method leads to a simple means for accomplishing synchronous burst time plan changes throughout the network. The functions of the reference stations needed to accomplish the burst time plan control are defined and explained. The discussion extends to SS/TDMA, and explains how the satellite switch state time plan change can be synchronized to the overall network burst time plan change.     

走向宽带化的VSAT卫星通信

受数据音频视频广播、计算机卫星宽带交互接入和音视频会议等业务的推动,VSAT卫星通信网向宽带业务发展巳成为必然趋势。分别对应以上业务的VSAT卫星通信网也日益趋于融合成一个统一的宽带VSAT通信网。发展宽带VSAT通信网的关键技术涉及到宽带数据广播、宽带多址接入、卫星通信规程、网络综合管理和宽带虚拟子网等。     

Communications satellites: orbiting into the 90s

Engineering advances in satellite communications are discussed. These include sophisticated switchboards, narrow beams, source coding for higher capacity, larger networks, and the use of higher and lower frequency bands and lower orbits. One of the most popular new 14/11-14/12 GHz commercial services has been time-division multiplexing of multiple carriers operating at low to medium bit rates. Multiple-carrier, low-burst-rate TDMA (time-division multiple access), in which several TDMA carriers are shared among ground terminals, is widely used with very small-aperture terminals (VSAT) on the customer's premises. NASA's (US National Aeronautic and Space Administration) ACTS and Italy's Italsat both plan to use signal regeneration at 30/20 GHz. Onboard switching and multiplexing will not only minimize noise and boost power, but also trim the cost of the entire satellite network     

Ku-Band satellite data networks using very small aperture terminals—part II: System design

In this part of the paper on Ku-band VSAT networks, the issue of overall system design is considered. After discussing possible system architectures, primary attention is given to the star network configuration in which customer-premise VSATs communicate with a central hub station, co-located with, or terrestrially connected to a host computer. The component elements of a Ku-band star network for interactive data applications are discussed and the critical items from the point-of-view of performance, capacity and cost are identified. An analytical model for the network, which combines delay-throughput characterization of the multi-access inbound and TDM outbound channels with satellite link analysis is described. The analytical model is exercised over a range of typical system component, traffic model and performance objective scenarios to provide a set of general design guidelines. These guidelines are useful for evaluating the trade-offs between key system elements (channel access unit, modem, VSAT antenna and satellite), VSAT traffic message length parameters and the performance objectives (average and peak network response time and availability). The results are used to address the issue of multi-access protocol selection over a range of scenarios typical of 1.2 or 1.8m VSAT-based interactive networks using current commercial Ku-band satellites. The results show that interactive star networks are often limited by satellite power rather than bandwidth, so that the use of simple contention access for VSATs may not imply a significant system capacity penalty.     

一种利用信道侦听的动态TDMA协议

针对TDMA网络节点间业务量不均匀时,会造成信道资源严重浪费的情况,提出了一种利用信道侦听的CS-TDMA协议。该协议在TDMA协议的基础上,节点通过接收到各节点的数据包数量估算相应节点的业务量大小。当某节点时隙剩余时,向其统计中业务量最大的一个节点发送ATS信息,通知该节点占用剩余时隙发送数据,直至时隙结束。仿真结果表明,CS-TDMA协议较TDMA协议在传输时延、吞吐量、数据接收率上均有所提高,尤其在节点间业务量大小不均匀时,时延性能提升更加明显。     

A Dynamic Adaptation Mechanism for Traffic Conditions in Wireless Sensor Network

As overall network traffic pursue to expand, a lot of low-power medium access control protocols have been proposed to deal with burst traffic in wireless sensor network. Although most of them provide low throughput but do not well optimize the energy consumption. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) and time division multiple access (TDMA) protocol that arranges nodes into two categories of priority according to their traffic rate and data transmission delay. Nodes that have continuous data should send its data during the contention free period, those one will be classified as low priority and its data will be scheduling using TDMA. Others nodes who have a random data should transmit it immediately during the contention access period (CAP) using a fuzzy logic algorithm, based on their queue length and implemented in the CSMA/CA algorithm. Therefore, the proposed scheme dynamically changes the CAP length to ensure that nodes can complete its transaction during the same super-frame. Simulation results are done using the network simulator tools (NS-2) and have improved good efficiency regarding the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The mechanism has improved the energy consumption, minimised the packet loss probability, increased the throughput variation in the network and also minimised the average end to end delay.     

Delay analysis for interlan traffic using two suitable TDMA satellite access schemes

Two demand assignment time division multiple access (TDMA) satellite access schemes that are suitable for providing flexible interconnections of local area networks are compared by means of two simulations; Fifo Ordered Demand Assignment/Information Bit Energy Adaptive (FODA/IBEA) and Combined Fixed Reservation Assignment (CFRA). A unique simulation tool was used, a meshed network of very small aperture terminals (VSATs) under the control of a master station was considered and similar networking conditions were applied to both access schemes. The generated traffic had two components with different level of burstiness; bulk traffic and interactive traffic. The performance evaluated is the delay for each traffic component. We show that CFRA is best when connecting clusters of only a few stations and even individual stations exchanging light traffic. On the other hand, FODA/IBEA is better suited to interconnect networks, or within networks with many hosts, where heavy traffic is more likely. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Channel access protocols for Ku-band VSAT networks: a comparativeevaluation

The performance of candidate protocols for first-generation Ku -band very small aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite networks is compared. The goal is to assist the process of selecting a protocol. The performance comparison is carried out over a range of possible traffic, channel and satellite parameters, leading to an understanding of the appropriate regime for each of the protocols under consideration. The protocols considered are unslotted Aloha, slotted Aloha, selective-reject (SRE) Aloha, and demand-assigned time-division multiple-access (TDMA) or DAMA     

A probabilistic model to describe the interference produced by VSAT MF‐TDMA networks

This paper develops a mathematical model to describe the statistical behavior of the interference produced by VSAT/MF‐TDMA networks. The model is used to assess the interference produced by the uplinks of a VSAT/MF‐TDMA network into links of a network that uses a neighboring satellite. In the proposed model, analytical expressions were developed to account for the effects of variations in transmitting powers, antenna sizes, and transmitting antenna pointing errors. The earth station locations are modeled by a 2‐dimensional Poisson point process. The model is general enough to accommodate other types of point processes and can be applied to situations involving service areas containing multiple types of earth station geographical distribution. Numerical results obtained with the proposed model are compared with those based on the actual parameter values (eg, earth station locations, antenna sizes, and transmitting powers), which were provided by a Brazilian satellite operator.     

Integration of Voice and Data in the Wideband Packet Satellite Network

The Wideband (packet satellite) network is an experimental 3 Mbit/s communications system developed under sponsorship of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Defense Communications Agency. This system is being used to evaluate the use of packet transmission for efficient voice communication, voice conferencing, and integration of voice and data over a satellite channel. Each station in the Wideband network consists of an earth terminal (dedicated 5 m antenna plus associated IF/RF equipment), a burst-modem and codec unit, and a station controller. Station controllers provide interfaces to host computers (including packet speech sources) and manage the allocation of the satellite channel on a TDMA demand-assigned basis. TDMA demand-assignment is implemented using a reservation-based packet-oriented protocol capableof handling traffic at multiple priority levels. The channel protocol provides a reservation-per-message mode of service (datagrams) to support transmission from bursty traffic sources and a reservation-per-call mode of service (streams) to support traffic with more regular arrival statisticS (e.g., vioce). A distributed scheduler running in every station controller eliminates the need for a central control station and minimizes network transit delay for datagram transmission as well as stream creation, modification, and deletion. In this paper we describe the protocols and mechanisms upon which the Wideband packet satellite network is based.     

Next generation multiservice VSAT networks

Very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite networks have so far been successful in the provision of specific communication services to geographically dispersed users. However, user demands are becoming more complex and VSAT networks are expected to provide a much wider range of services (voice, data and multimedia). This paper investigates how this service integration could be achieved and shows that performance improvements are possible if efficient multi-access protocols and speech compression with voice-activity-detection techniques are used. It also discusses the future role that VSATs could play in the provision of access to the integrated broadband communication network to remote users. It is shown that it could be possible to use VSATs for ATM service provision, but there are limitations on the system's performance from the satellite delay and limited link capacity     

VSAT Networks—an overview

This paper examines the technology and constraints of very small aperture terminals (VSAT) networks, a special type of wide-area thin-route satellite network that represents a recent innovation in the field of satellite communications. VSAT network architectures suitable for both data and voice communications are studied in this paper. Several issues concerning the frequency of operations, that is, C-band versus Ku-band are examined, and trade-offs between non-spread spectrum and spread spectrum techniques, as well as modulation and multiple access schemes, are considered in detail. Link design examples are given to illustrate the performance of various types of VSAT networks.     

Guidelines for a preliminary dimensioning of a transaction-oriented vsat network

Very small aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite networks have recently emerged as an attractive and cost-effective alternative to traditional terrestrial circuit or packet switching networks for transaction enquiry-response data applications. VSAT star networks are particularly well adapted to this kind of application, offering high link reliability, better flexibility, wide service area coverage and several economic and operational advantages. However, one major drawback associated with satellite links is the relatively high propagation delay, which is about 0·27 s for one hop (ground–satellite-ground). This requires special design and dimensioning optimization in order to keep the response time of the network within acceptable limits. This paper provides guidelines for the dimensioning of such enquiry-response star VSAT networks. Dimensioning refers to determining the minimum transmission bit rates required, on the different terrestrial and satellite segments of the network, for a given network configuration and mean delay requirement. The approach presented in this paper allows network designers to determine, in a simple way, the required modem speeds of the network segments.     

VSAT卫星通信网的性能分析

ＶＳＡＴ卫星通信网是目前发展非常迅速的一个新的卫星通信领域，它适用于各种类型的业务，并以其设备简单、通信可靠和组网灵活等特点而得到了广泛的应用。     

动态多通道卫星话音／数据综合的S－ALOHA性能分析

本文分析了一种新的多通道话音／数据综合ＶＳＡＴ系统的Ｓ－ＡＬＯＨＡ性能，并给出了数值计算结果；从中可看到该协议既能提供较高的吞吐量，又能有效地减小话音时延，并能协调话音和数据之间对性能要求的差异，文中考虑了Ｓ－ＡＬＯＨＡ中分组达到时间抖动的影响．文中还讨论了话音在重负载的条件下可占用数据通道的动态分配方案，并给出了动态分配的算法。