Onboard demand scheduling of a SS/TDMA multibeam satellite with integrated circuit- and packet-switching

This paper reports results of over 100 simulations of a spacecraft-switched, time-division multiple access (SS/TDMA) satellite system that achieves efficient bandwidth and transponder utilization by frequency reuse with multibeams, by integrated circuit- and packet-switching, and by onboard demand scheduling of beam interconnections on a frame-by-frame basis. A scheduling method is defined, which in simulation achieves utilization within one percent of the optimum. An optimum division of capacity between circuits and packets is determined. Several scheduling options to mitigate large packet queues are evaluated. A strategy is formulated, yielding an integrated system with acceptable circuit blocking probability and packet queueing delay, and with significantly higher utilization than a pure circuit system.