INTELSAT second-generation TDMA terminal

The time-division multiple access (TDMA) traffic terminals currently operating over INTELSAT satellites are rapidly becoming obsolete and difficult to maintain. The increasing use of digital circuit multiplication equipment, together with the need to ensure compatibility with synchronous digital hierarchy multiplexing, makes existing digital speech interpolation terrestrial interfaces ineffectual. In the future, the bulk of regular traffic carried over INTELSAT satellites will consist of low- to medium-volume international telephone and data circuits between large numbers of member nations. COMSAT is currently developing a low-cost, second-generation TDMA terminal which provides significant improvements in performance, terrestrial interfaces and traffic grooming capability, satellite link and traffic monitoring capability, built-in test and fault isolation, ease of operation, enhanced graphical user interfaces, and remote access capability