Comparison between distributed and centralized demand assignment TDMA satellite access schemes

This paper presents the performance measurements from a comparison between FODA/IBEA and two other satellite access schemes, FEEDERS and DRIFS. The three schemes differ in terms of the scheduling of the channel capacity: i.e. centralized control in FODA/IBEA and distributed in the other two. All these access schemes were designed at CNUCE, where the simulation tool used for the comparison was also developed. FODA/IBEA was developed and tested on several satellites (Olympus, Eutelsat and Italsat), and used in a project of LAN interconnection.* The two distributed control access schemes have been studied and simulated to analyse the behaviour of the capacity assignment algorithm, while the recovery procedures needed for the network stability will be presented in later papers. All the access schemes support an aggregated traffic, and the quality of the data transmission in guaranteed even when the transmitting signal experiences a severe attenuation due to bad atmospheric conditions.