Control-theoretic bandwidth-on-demand protocol for satellite networks

In this paper, a control-theoretic DAMA (Demand Assignment Multiple Access) protocol for ATM-based geostationary (GEO) satellite networks is introduced. The proposed scheme, developed for the European Union project "GOECAST" (Information Society and Technology (IST) programme), deals with the lower priority traffic categories, which have to adapt their transmission rates to the traffic conditions. The novelty of this paper consists of the use of control theory concepts to model the satellite system and to generate the bandwidth requests. The proposed scheme is stable, avoids wasting the assigned capacity and is capable of dealing with congestions. Software simulations have been performed with the OPNET tool, in order to test the effectiveness of the proposed protocol.