An experiment in high-speed international packet switching

The high-speed international packet switching experiment provides a test bed for development efforts currently underway within both COMSAT Laboratories and the German Aerospace Research Establishment in high-speed computer-to-computer communications, link control and networking protocols, interface processors, and multiple service applications. The system configuration is based on a high-speed (1.544 Mbit/s) satellite link, and the space segment is provided by a 14/11-GHz transponder in the Atlantic spare (INTELSAT V) satellite. The interface between the data processing system and the communications system is a special high-speed version of the programmable interface processor. Interfaces are provided to a number of data processing devices to demonstrate that a data communications network with intelligent interfaces is capable of simultaneously supporting interactive terminals requiring short response times, and file and data base transfer applications requiring high throughputs.