IDMA-Based MAC Protocol for Next-Generation Satellite Networks

In order to overcome the shortcomings of existing MAC protocols based on TDMA or CDMA in satellite networks, IDMA technique is introduced into satellite communication networks for the first time, and a novel IDMA-based MAC protocol is proposed in this paper. Due to the potential advantages of IDMA, the proposed scheme avoids complex packet scheduling and slot management required in the existing MAC protocols. In the random access channel, the spread aloha method is adopted to alleviate collision of request packet, which improve the access probability in high load conditions. Throughput and delay performances are derived in detail for a given arrival rate of access requests. Analysis and numerical results show the efficiency of the proposed scheme, especially when the traffic load is high.