Concepts for reliable satellite communications over blockage channels

We consider concepts for achieving reliable communication to mobile terminals which experience intermittent blockages of their line-of-sight to a transmitting satellite. Two categories of solutions are investigated: automatic repeat request (ARQ), and packet forwarding by a network of cooperative terminals. While the ARQ approaches can achieve reliable communication, low error rates may require several retransmissions, increasing the load on the system and resulting in significant delay and delay-jitter. The cooperative forwarding schemes considered require multiple intermediate terminals in order to provide successful delivery but can provide low error rates with modest system load and relatively little delay and delay-jitter