An approach for quickly assessing mobile user objective system (MUOS) frequency assignment configurations

Current plans for the MUOS satellite communication system require military units and other users of MUOS communication resources to submit one or more satellite access requests (SARs) to a “chop-chain” approval process. The approval process can take considerable time, and the submitter cannot know whether the SAR will be successful until after the process completes. The problem compounded by the fact that reassignment of satellite beam carrier (SBC) frequencies to better suit new SARs is requires massive computation via the MUOS Performance Model (MPM) algorithms that can take over a day to run. To address these problems, this work demonstrates a dual-component software tool or planner. The first component is the SAR evaluator that evaluates a SAR's likelihood of success according to the same criteria that are considered when submitting a SAR over the SIPRNET for approval. It also shows a graphical assessment over time of the SAR's projected impact to the availability of various MUOS resources. The second component is the optimizer that rapidly determines SBC frequency assignments that minimize multi-access interference (MAI) on one or more MOUS satellites, given the newly specified SARs and currently committed traffic. The optimizer can aid the SAR submission process and can calculate “what-if scenarios” for SAR evaluators who must determine regional or global bandwidth allocations. The investigation includes benchmarks on proof-of-concept algorithms to demonstrate the capability of the optimizer to determine the carrier-frequency assignments in a few seconds when operating on portable devices such as an ordinary laptop as well as a PDA having limited computational bandwidth.