Adaptive resource sharing for satellite TDMA

A method used to improve the link quality of a satellite TDMA network using adaptive resource sharing (ARS) is presented. The TDMA network considered is an experimental 20/30 GHz satellite network operated via the satellite DFS Kopernikus. ARS provides a means to distribute a common resource within the network. The common resource in a TDMA system is an additional time slot. This spare time is used for lowering the code rate and/or the data rate. This results in a lower bit error rate (BER) and a better link quality. Another resource used is the uplink transmit power to compensate for uplink fades. The paper describes the ARS strategy and the uplink power control (ULPC) implemented in the experimental 20/30 GHz TDMA satellite network