Packet radio and satellite networks
Abstract
The structure, protocols, and applications of packet radio and satellite networks are described and compared. Packet switching occurs at the subnetwork computer interfaced between host computers and remote terminals, and involves decomposing transmitted messages into blocks of a maximum size, addressing and supplying the blocks (packets) with headers, scanning them for errors, and sending them onward. High bandwidth communications capabilities of packet-switching satellites are superior to those of ground-based networks, although both use multiaccess/broadcast channels. The protocols, network controls and management functions are also different for the two types of systems, due to physical connectivity and propagation delay characteristics. There is no certainty that ground radio stations can contact all possible receivers, which is not true of satellites. Finally, all satellite stations can be clock synchronized due to full connectivity, which ground-based systems do not have.
- Publication:
-
IEEE Communications Magazine
- Pub Date:
- November 1984
- Bibcode:
- 1984IComM..22...24T
- Keywords:
-
- Communication Networks;
- Packets (Communication);
- Radio Communication;
- Satellite Networks;
- Channels (Data Transmission);
- Ground Stations;
- Multiple Access;
- Network Control;
- Packet Switching;
- Protocol (Computers);
- Spread Spectrum Transmission;
- Wave Attenuation;
- Communications and Radar