Architectures for the Intelsat NISDN-compatible satellite communications network

This paper presents a conceptual description of a number of possible satellite network architectures for integration into and between the emerging narrowband 64 kb/s based integrated services digital networks (ISDNs). The discussion, which focuses on functional and architectural aspects of network-integrated satellite systems, is based on two underlying themes. First, the satellite system, as a strict digital transmission system in international ISDN networks, must be virtually ISDN service transparent (i.e., it must not cause any unintended degradation to the transported signals and communication protocols). Secondly, the inherent features of satellite systems are exploited to offer additional functional network support to the ISDN network capabilities for select ISDN services.