Advanced return channel system architecture for broadband multimedia communications via satellite

With their tremendous success in broadcasting entertainment services, digital satellite systems are rapidly being viewed as viable service delivery vehicles. Network operators are seriously considering satellite-based networks to offer broadband and multimedia services to supplement and enhance their existing terrestrial networks. Most proposed Ka-band satellite-based multimedia communications require advanced switching technology and signal processing on-board satellites that will directly impact their cost, performance, availability, and time-to-market. Given the amount of commercial and technical risk involved in such complex systems, satellite operators have been looking for solutions that are simpler, yet flexible. One elegant solution is to use Ka/Ku-band on the return path and digital video broadcasting (DVB) on the forward path on existing and proven bent-pipe satellite technology. The open and neutral nature of this architecture will provide bandwidth-on-demand broadband access that is both attractive and ubiquitous when compared with terrestrial solutions. In this paper, elements of the return channel system architecture are discussed, including the air interface, ground system, and access devices for supporting Internet protocol (IP) and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) services. An evolution path is presented to evolve this architecture towards an on-board processing satellite