MAC Architecture for Broadband Satellite Access Systems

MAC Architecture for Broadband Satellite Access Systems Tallal O. Elshabrawy In recent years, the telecommunications industry has expanded tremendously. A tendency of integrating various business revenues with the conventional communication systems is becoming more and more popular to achieve global information services. The integration is triggered by increasing demands of costumers to access various types of broadband multimedia services. The access system can be implemented on many platforms; from line feed as cable, fiber, or copper networks to wireless as radio or satellite networks. Broadband satellite access is a leading candidate to contribute to such development due to satellites’ distinctive features of global coverage over single hops and distance insensitivity. However, as satellite networks possess rather longer delays and bounded resources, a MAC layer that can efficiently share resources over a minimum possible bandwidth is mandatory to the success of satellite access. Existing MAC protocols are not able to achieve optimum performance. Hence, design of a new MAC becomes inevitable. The new MAC should introduce a novel structure with certain behavioral sequences and an efficient access technique. In this thesis, we propose a MAC architecture that aims to address such requirement. We utilize a novel access technique based on an enhanced CFDAMA protocol. We also introduce a new concept of two level differential scheduling. We present formal models based on SDL to verify the validly of the devised system. Finally, we build an OPNET simulation model to demonstrate quantitative system operation and serve as a nucleus model for possible future research involving performance optimization in satellite networks over the devised architecture.