On the fairness of return channel capacity allocation in DVB-RCS-based satellite networks

Broadband satellite access (BSA) systems can form an alternative path for the provision of Internet access in areas with poor network infrastructure. The DVB-RCS standard introduced the specifications of an interaction channel for two-way BSA networks. In this study, a new dynamic scheduling strategy for the interaction channel of GEO satellite networks is proposed, evaluated and compared with a typical Round Robin scheme. The main idea of the proposed strategy is to change, prior to each allocation, the sequence according to which bandwidth is assigned to the satellite terminals. The new sequence is fully specified by a set of fairness indices, each one related to a unique terminal and updated after each allocation. Along with the examined scheduling strategies, two capacity request calculation techniques found in the literature are also evaluated and compared through a series of simulations. Copyright r 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.