Performance evaluation of error control protocols in mobile satellite communications

An analytical approach is employed to evaluate the coding gain of delay-limited adaptive error control (DAEC) protocols on mobile satellite channels. By using this approach the power savings offered by various error control protocols can be compared on a common basis. DAEC protocols are designed to make efficient use of a small number of feedback signals (with or without retransmissions) to combat the uncertain noise in mobile satellite channels. The channel models which the authors have considered include Rayleigh, Rice, and log-normal fading distributions. In particular, a proper designed DAEC protocol is shown to provide significant coding gain improvement (5-8 dB) over the comparable FEC and the conventional Type-I or Type-II hybrid ARQ protocols for delay-limited mobile applications