Two-Level Multiaccess Schemes for Packet Satellite Systems with Low Duty Factor Terminals

A two-level packet satellite network architecture is proposed to provide efficient communications for a large number of low duty factor terminals. At the first level, disjoint subnets of prioritized users employ a minislotted alternating priorities (MSAP) protocol. At the second level, a time division multiple access (TDMA) or frequency division multiple access (FDMA) uplink, and a time division multiplexed (TDM) or frequency division multiplexed (FDM) downlink is assumed, with the satellite regenerating and reformatting the data appropriately. Examples with a large number of terminals show that the two-level schemes provide superior delay performance over single-level methods for wide ranges of throughput.