A controlled multiaccess protocol for packet satellite communication

A controlled multiaccess protocol for packet satellite communication is introduced and analyzed. This protocol is fully distributed and no onboard processing is required for the satellite. A control parameter f is used to adaptively control the packet transmission rate such that maximum system capacity can be attained and the average delay is always minimized for a given throughput. The controlled protocol is found to give a smaller average delay than slotted ALOHA even when the throughput is as low as 0.05. On the other hand, under heavy traffic conditions, it can provide a throughput close to unity and an average delay not much more than one round-trip propagation delay. The system performance is also robust, in the sense that a 15 percent error in throughput estimation results in no more than a 3 percent increase of the overall average packet delay.