A tool for satellite communications Advanced DVB-RCS / DVB-S2 system and protocol simulator

A tool has been designed to simulate broadband satellite communication systems and techniques: a system and protocol simulator based on advanced DVB-RCS and DVB-S2 standards. As a powerful and flexible tool, it can be used to investigate and optimize current and future satellite communication systems, mainly to develop resource management algorithms and assess system performances. It is capable of simulating a satellite system using Ka-Band with multi-beam European coverage. It integrates rain attenuation and interference models and respects the complete DVB-RCS/DVB-S2 protocol stack and an evolution of DVB-RCS with adaptive coding and modulation (ACM). The simulator supports different quality of services (QoS)/service level agreements (SLA), ACM, several encapsulation schemes, congestion control mechanisms, call admission control and resource management. This paper gives an overview of the possibilities offered by the tool and presents some results.