Intersystem Access Control Protocol Description

This paper describes one layer in the Intersystem protocol hierarchy, which is a mechanism for internetworking among existing and planned military satellite communication systems. With this mechanism, the combined systems form a world-wide satellite communication network serving tens of thousands of end users, many of whom are mobile, using many different communication link protocols. Since the interconnection of separate communication systems via the Intersystem is not allowed to change their internal structure or communication protocols, the Intersystem protocol hierarchy is primarily a common set of higher layer coordination protocols that will overlay the existing protocols in each member system. This paper describes the higher layer coordination protocols.