Packet processing performance effects of interleaving and queueing

Our analysis has shown that the convolutional interleaver has severe deleterious effects on throughput efficiency and processing delay over packet switched satellite communication links that use frequency hopping. This traditional interleaver must be flushed between data transmissions from different terminals whenever a circuit is used in a time division multiple access (TDMA) mode. This flushing wastes circuit resources, increases packet delay, and lowers utilization. A new approach to interleaving, the hybrid interleaver, that includes elements of both the block and convolutional interleavers does a more efficient job of mapping packets onto frequency hops. In most cases, this allows greater utilization of every hop assigned to a circuit. The bounds show that hybrid interleaving provides at least 300% greater circuit utilization than convolutional interleaving when multiple terminals share a packet circuit on a TDMA basis.