Equipment design considerations for Intelsat TDMA traffic terminals

Architectural and equipment design options available to meet the systems specifications for Intelsat TDMA traffic terminals are reviewed. The traffic terminal requirements are divided into synchronization, control and transmission, and terrestrial interface categories, with transmissions effected through bursts and sub-bursts. The specifications include data stream rates and mandatory frame orientations for the traffic terminals, together with the presence of digital speech interpolation and noninterpolation modules. Possible TDMA terminal component interconnections are discussed, together with tradeoffs inherent in choice of either a hardware alone or a hardware/software configuration for the common TDMA terminal equipment, which maintains the system and controls the communications mode. Synchronization procedures are outlined, as are automatic test functions and modem characteristics.