A Mesh Network over a Semi-Transparent Satellite

In the satellite communications component of the future Internet, peer-to-peer mesh connectivity of satellite terminals is an impellent necessity. In particular, delay sensitive applications such as real-time multimedia, collaborative conferencing and cellular backhauling are appealing use-cases for adopting mesh network topologies. Moreover, the use of a single satellite hop for directly connecting remote terminals (as opposed to a double-hop connection required in star topologies) reduces the satellite traffic load and leads to savings in operational costs of the satellite network. In this paper, we propose a multi-beam satellite mesh network based on a semi-transparent or fully regenerative satellite with different on board switching capabilities. In particular, four network solutions have been assessed in terms of flexibility, complexity and capacity, trading-off between network performance and implementation cost.