Generation of burst time plans for the Intelsat TDMA system

In the Intelsat time-division multiple-access (TDMA) system, the burst time plan (BTP) contains the assignments of traffic and reference bursts, common acquisition windows, and test slots to time slots within the TDMA frame for a given network. Generation of the BTP involves the processes of sub-burst formation, burst formation, reference burst assignments, and burst scheduling. BTP information is transferred to the individual reference and traffic stations in the form of a master time plan (MTP) and a condensed time plan (CTP). This paper describes algorithms which have been developed for each of the BTP generation processes, as well as those algorithms and procedures used to generate the MTPs and CTPs. A software system which implements these algorithms is also discussed.