Load Balancing for Return Satellite Channels with Multiple Traffic Classes

In a satellite network, remote terminals with multiple traffic priority classes share a group of return link channels. The traffic volume for each return channel may vary, resulting potentially in unbalanced load and degradation in quality of service (QoS) of the same priority class. There is a practical need that the traffic load to each return channel is balanced from time to time, particularly with respect to the priority level. In this paper, an innovative load balancing method is proposed. The algorithm is intended to balance the traffic per priority for each return channel in an optimal way based on vector convergence. Analysis and simulation are presented to show the effectiveness of this scheme. The analysis also demonstrates that the proposed method is genetically applicable to communication and computer networks with multiple traffic classes.