Fixed assignment based window access with capture (FAWAC) for personal satellite communications

In this paper, we propose a new multiple access scheme employing transmission power control to improve system performance for personal satellite networks. The authors have already developed a multiple access scheme called FAWA (fixed assignment based window access) which is able to vary the system behavior from the slotted ALOHA scheme to TDMA scheme. The FAWAC (fixed assignment based window access with capture) scheme is an extension of the FAWA scheme. It is possible to have priorities on transmissions in assigned slots due to capture effect derived by power control. We examine the performance aspects by theoretical analysis and show some numerical examples. Furthermore, we have evaluated usefulness of the capture effect in the satellite channels by experiments using a real satellite and several earth stations