Satellite multiple access protocols

This paper presents a tutorial on the varioupsr otocols used in satellite data transmission. The most important characteristic of the satellite system is the ability of the earth stations, located at geographically dispersed areas, to access the satellite to transmit and to receive data. The area covered by a geostationary satellite is a function of the satellite's receiving and transmitting antennats). For a large number of users with bursty traffic, a highly efficient way of using the channel capacity is to use multiple access techniques. In a multiple accessed channel, two or more users may nominally share the channel. The satellite system can provide broadcast capability at any given time to all earth stations within its transmission coverage area. The combination of multiple access and broadcast capability makes it possible to configure the earth stations into a fully connected "one-hop" network.