Satellite TDMA Capability

The Integrated Waveform 25kHz and 5kHz UHF Satellite Standards (MIL-STD-188-181C and MIL-STD-188-183B) describe a network time-division multiple-access (TDMA) method which relies on the use of Continuous Phase Modulated (CPM) waveforms. The CPM modulation types have higher baud rates than the modems used for the existing Demand-Assigned Multiple-Access (DAMA) system and should greatly increase the throughput over the current UHF Follow-on (UFO) satellites. This paper provides an outline of a simple TDMA scheme that can take advantage of the same military standard CPM modems to multiplex to eleven separate voice channels on a single satellite frequncy pair. The availability of this simple TDMA capability along with the planned Integrated Waveform (DAMA) will increase the throughput of the existing UFO satellite and the future Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) networks.