A predictive demand assignment multiple access protocol for Internet access over broadband satellite networks

Abstract Medium access control (MAC) protocol is responsible for wireless resource management, which is crucial to satellite communication. To enhance the performance of broadband satellite networks, the application characteristics should be considered in the design of the MAC protocol. With the rapid expansion of Internet applications and the attractiveness of high speed Internet access via broadband satellite networks, it becomes an attractive objective to take into account the self‐similar nature of Internet traffic in MAC protocol designs. This paper presents a novel predictive demand assignment multiple access (PRDAMA) protocol for packet communications over broadband satellite networks. PRDAMA allocates free bandwidth resources by estimating the positive varying trend of the Internet traffic to facilitate prediction of the bandwidth requirements of the earth stations. Simulation results demonstrate that PRDAMA achieves a lower average delay and delay jitter compared with other DAMA protocols under highly bursty traffic due to its accurate traffic trend prediction. With less bursty traffic, PRDAMA still performs better than the other DAMA protocols under a heavy traffic load. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.