Multisatellite Cooperative Random Access Scheme in Low Earth Orbit Satellite Networks

Multisatellite cooperative random access (MSC-RA) scheme is proposed in low earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks. In the scheme, a packet structure based on single carrier interleaved frequency division multiple access (SC-IFDMA) is designed to overcome the effect of users' propagation delays on the received signals at satellite nodes, which ensures the synchronization of received signals. The transmission model from multiple terminals to multiple satellite nodes in a slot can be equivalent to a virtual multi-input multioutput model, and MSC detection is employed to decode multiple collided packets. The MSC detection can be applied to slotted ALOHA (SA), contention resolution diversity slotted ALOHA (CRDSA), CRDSA-3, and irregular repetition slotted ALOHA (IRSA) protocols, which are dubbed MSC-SA, MSC-CRDSA, MSC-CRDSA-3, and MSC-IRSA, respectively. At the gateway station, the MSC detection and iterative interference cancellation processing are alternately conducted for multiple collided packets at satellite nodes. The performance of these MSC-RA schemes is evaluated via mathematical analysis and computer simulation in terms of throughput, stability and energy efficiency. Simulation results show that MSC-SA, MSC-CRDSA, MSC-CRDSA-3, and MSC-IRSA schemes significantly outperform conventional ones, and the MSC-CRDSA scheme is superior to MSC-SA, MSC-CRDSA-3 and MSC-IRSA schemes.