ELEC 5510: Satellite

Communication Systems

Dr. Wanchun Liu

1
 OBJECTIVES
› Build on the physical layer concepts taught in the previous
lectures and understand its impact on higher layers
› Overview of satellite multiple access techniques (FDMA, TDMA,
CDMA, SDMA)
› Overview of satellite networking and protocol; Transmit Control
Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP)
› Understand inter-relationships between various communications
layers (physical, media access control, TCP/IP) and transponder
hardware imperfections on the quality of service in satellite
networks
› Understand the fundamental principles of satellite network
planning

2
 REFERENCES

› Satellite Communications, 4th Edition, Dennis Rody, Chapters

14, 15.6-15.14

› Satellite Networking Principles and Protocols 2nd Edition, Zhili

Sun, Chapters 2.6-2.8, 3.8, 6, 7 and 8.6

› EUTELSAT KA-SAT, http://www.eutelsat.com/en/satellites/the-

fleet/EUTELSAT-KA-SAT.html

› Notations in the lectures might be slightly different with the one

used in the text book to ensure consistency in lecture materials

3
 SYSTEM OVERVIEW
Earth
station
antenna
MAC and Channel Modu- Power
TCP/IP encoder lator amplifier Uplink
channel

Satellite

Error
Channel
Link/Network control
MODEM propagation
Layer coding

Earth
Downlink
station
channel
antenna

MAC and Channel Demodu-

TCP/IP decoder lator

4
 INTERNET PROTOCOL REFERENCE
MODEL
› Originally based on OSI Layered Model covering from
applications to the physical transmissions
› Virtually all systems are all-IP based (DVB-S/S2/RCS, etc)
› Transmission frames are constructed via encapsulation and
layering

5
 PROTOCOL LAYERING CONCEPTS

› Headers are added in each layer for layer communications

› Layers are independent

from each other

PHY
PHY PHY
frame Data Data
Header Header

› Data link frame are encapsulated into physical layer frames,

added a physical frame header and transmitted
6
 INTERNET PROTOCOL REFERENCE
MODEL

MAC

Bits
transmission

› Link+physical: Enable bit streams transmission via modulation

and channel coding using defined radio resources
› Media Access Control (MAC): multiple access control to
enable sharing of physical resources via polling, FDMA,
TDMA, CDMA, DAMA.
7
 INTERNET PROTOCOL REFERENCE
MODEL
Internetworking Protocol

› The Internet Protocol (IP) uses a datagram approach that sends

packets with no quality of service (e.g., channel reservation)
› TCP provides service reliability for end-to-end IP communications,
independent of the physical layer → connection oriented
› UDP provides best effort service for IP comms → connectionless
8
 ALL-IP COMMUNICATIONS

› Communications between users is done by using the IP regardless of the

method to transport IP packets
› Satellite networks include broadcasting networks for point-to-point
communications and point-to-multipoint communications.
› Terrestrial networks include LAN, MAN, WAN, cellular networks
› Some satellite are equipped with a router, taking IP packets and repackaging
them into frames, suitable for transmission
9
 DATAGRAM

› IP packets are routed based on the destination address

› Routing can be changed to adapt with the condition of the
networks
10
Media Access Control / Multiple Access
 MEDIA ACCESS CONTROL/MULTIPLE
ACCESS
› Enable two or more earth stations to share the satellite
radio resources
› Several multiple access technologies
- FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access)
- Fixed Assignment of Frequencies
- Demand-Assigned Frequencies
- TDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access)
- Fixed Assignment of Time-Slots
- Demand-Assigned Time-Slots
- CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)
- SDMA (Space Division Multiple Access)
 MULTIPLE ACCESS ≠ MULTIPLEXING

› Multiplexing is NOT equal with multiple access (TDM

≠ TDMA)
› Transmission multiplexing is done to share the
bandwidth between users in the same earth station

› Multiple access is done to

share the bandwidth
between earth stations in
different locations
 FDMA-FREQUENCY DIVISION
MULTIPLE ACCESS

›It is the oldest and most common

›Available satellite channel bandwidth is broken
into frequency bands for N earth stations
 FIXED ASSIGNMENT-FDMA

› The assigned bandwidth is fixed (e.g., 15MHz shared equally

by 3 stations)

60 FDM channels in 5MHz

bandwidth

When will the efficiency of fixed assignment FDMA be low?

 ANSWER

• It is low when a user cannot FULLY utilise the

bandwidth constantly.
• For example, transmitting BPSK at a data
rate of 3Mbps will result in a bandwidth of
3MHz, which will fully occupy a channel with
3MHz bandwidth.
• “FULLY utilise” means a user generate a
constant traffic demand at a minimum of
3Mbps
 FDMA LINK ANALYSIS (1)

› Recall Link Budget analysis for Cascading uplink and

downlink
› FDMA introduces multi-carrier intermodulation noise

› Noise-to-Carrier ratio C C

 N    N 
DN U

N P P P P N  N  N 
 N  NU  ND  IM          (1)
C PR P RU PR PR  C U  C D  C  IM
When the uplink noise will not matter for the downlink?
 ANSWER

Uplink noise will not matter if the transponder

demodulates and decodes the uplink
transmissions and then re-creates the signal for
FDMA transmission over the downlink.
 FDMA LINK ANALYSIS (2)
› To maximise its gain, the transponder amplifier transmits at the
maximum power (saturation point), characterised by maximum
EIRP, EIRPs
› The saturation point exhibits
non-linear input-output
characteristics
› FDMA results in phase change
at the saturation points – IM
noise
› Back-off EIRPs by 5 dB to the
linear region

[BO] o  [BO] i  5 dB (2)

Will IM exist if only a single carrier is used?

 ANSWER

• If only a single carrier/tone used in FDMA transmission, there

is no intermodulation interference or harmonic distortion. In
fact, a single carrier/tone transmission is employed for a
TDMA system which we will cover next.
 FDMA LINK ANALYSIS (3)
› Maximum Transponder EIRP, EIRPS needs to back-off and
shared by K carriers. Downlink EIRP per subcarrier EIRPD
EIRPD  EIRPS   BO o  K  (2)

› Bandwidth per subcarrier, B, that takes into account the fraction

of the transponder bandwidth BTR used for transmission, β,
βBTR
B  B  β  BTR   K  (3)
K
› Downlink Carrier-to-Noise ratio (recall link budget lecture),
(C/N)DN
C  G
 N   EIRPDN   T   
LOSSESDN  k  
B (4)
DN DN
 
L L
p a
BBN

How to achieve a maximum downlink C/N for FDMA?

 ANSWER

Transmitting with a single carrier will result in [BO]o=0 and thus

[β]=0, leading to no power penalty due to multi-carrier
transmission
 FDMA LINK ANALYSIS (4)

› By replacing (2) and (3) into (4), Linearity condition

C  G 
 N   EIRP S     LOSSES
 T  DN
DN  k   B TR   β   BO o (5)
DN

› Best (C/N)DN occurs when transponder operates in a

linear region,
 β  BOo  0  β  BOo (6)

› Thus β determines the transponder effective bandwidth

when FDMA is used
› The FDMA bit rate per subcarrier, rb, is then
C   Eb 
rb      B     (7)
 N  DN No 
 EXAMPLE

A Satellite Manager wants to reduce the transmission cost by

minimising the FDMA satellite transponder bandwidth, that he
must rent from satellite providers to support two earth stations,
each assigned with a single subcarrier. What is the maximum
transponder bit transmission rate that can be used to transmit to
the earth stations if a QPSK symbol is used?. The maximum
transponder bandwidth is 36MHz and the back-off is 6dB.
Assume the bandwidth per subcarrier is 3MHz.
 ANSWER

BTR  36MHz  BTR   75.56dBHz

B  3MHz  B  64.8dBHz
K  2  K  3dB

Maximum transponder rate  Maximum transponder efficiency

that happens when α  BOo

From (3), BTR1  B  α  K  64.88  6  3 BTR1  24.4MHz

As QPSK is used, the transmission rate is 48.8Mbps
 TDMA-TIME DIVISION MULTIPLE
ACCESS
› Transmission time is divided into N time slots
› Each earth station gets to transmit in fixed time slots
only
› Requires time
synchronisation between
earth stations
 FIXED ASSIGNMENT-TDMA

› Only one carrier uses the

transponder at any one time
reference – No IM noise
burst

› Signal information is
transmitted in bursts.

› Data is decomposed into a

burst format for transmission
 FIXED ASSIGNMENT-TDMA

› The stations transmit bursts

in sequence
› One station allocated for
transmitting reference bursts
reference
burst to synchronise stations
› A PCM-size frame (a multiple
of 125μsec) contains a
reference burst R and the
traffic bursts from the other
earth stations (A, B, and C)
› INTELSAT systems
Intuitively how frame and burst sizes impact bit rate?
 ANSWER

• The bit rate achieved will be determined by the ratio of frame

and burst times. The maximum is achieved when the frame
time is equal to the burst time.
 REFERENCE BURST (RB)

›RB is transmitted by one of the earth stations in

the network designated as the primary
reference.

›A second RB is transmitted by a secondary

reference earth station, discarded unless the
primary reference fails
 REFERENCE BURST (RB)
Frame

› G: To offset the difference in channel delays between

users due to different locations
› CBR: local carrier and time synchronisation to enable
coherent detection at the correct bit-rate
 REFERENCE BURST (RB)
Frame

› BCW: Unique sequences known at all earth stations for

providing time reference for burst detection as well as
identifying type of bursts
› SIC: Transmitter identification sequence
 TRAFFIC BURST (TB)
Frame

Traffic Burst

› G, CBR and BCW are as before, however, BCW

sequence in TB differ to RB’s one to indicate starts of TB
› OW: orderwire, enabling comms between earth stations
Why do we need different BCWs for RB and TBs?
 ANSWER

BCW in RB is used to provide global clock

information for network synchronisation and the
start of the RB frame while BCW in TB is used
for finding the start of receiving frame for each
earth station.
 NETWORK SYNCHRONISATION VIA RB
(1)
TB
Burst Time
TA
Plan

Via BCW in RB

› Operates a burst time plan, known by all stations

› Successful detection of BCW in RB after propagation delay
tA/B indicates the start of receiving a frame (SORF)
› Based on the burst plan, the corresponding TB for each
station starts after TA/B
 NETWORK SYNCHRONISATION VIA RB
(2)
TA
Burst
Time Plan

TB
TA

2tA/B+DA/B=C

TB

› Transmission by each station must be delayed by DA/B to

arrive at the transponder according to the burst time plan
› DA/B depends on the location of stations
› The frame transmission process commences at the SOTF
(start of transmit frame)
 NETWORK SYNCHRONISATION VIA RB
(3)
› A constant DA/B – open loop control
› To improve efficiency, a variable DA/B can be used
depending on user locations to reduce the delay needed
to synchronise with satellite clock - close loop control
› DA/B needs to be broadcast to all stations through a
special slot CDC (Coordination and Delay Channel)
embedded in RB

DA/B

Why do we need a variable DA/B?

 ANSWER

Propagation delay is not constant due to movement of the

satellite. Even for geostationary-satellites, a station keeping
maneuvers to ensure it is in correct orbital position can lead to
a delay variation of ±0.55ms to earth stations. If we just use a
constant DA/B we need to add 0.55ms to the guard time. Thus
dynamic adjustment of DA/B is required and this leads to
improved efficiency.
 TDMA LINK ANALYSIS (1)

› If we have a input bit rate of rb, with a frame time TF

and a burst time TB, the transmission rate for the
station is
TF
rTDMA  rb (8)
TB

› The frame efficiency,

overhead traffic bits (9)
ηF  1  
total bits total bits

› The number of available channels, n,

ηFrTDMA
n (10)
rb
 EXAMPLE

Your manager wants to know the frame efficiency of his

TDMA INTELSAT satellite systems when he is supporting
800 voice channels @64kbps each. Assuming you know that
the total number of symbols per frame is 128000 BPSK
symbols, transmitted every 2ms, calculate the frame
efficiency. Also advice what he can do if he wants to increase
his frame efficiency.
 ANSWER

128000
rb  64kbps rTDMA   64Mbps n  700
2ms
nr b
ηF   0.7  70% efficiency
rTDMA

To increase the efficiency, the ratio between the number of

traffic bits and total bits in a frame can be increased
 TDMA LINK ANALYSIS (2)

› Similar with FDMA, we assume downlink C/N

dominates
› Relationship between rates, link budget and BER is
 C   Eb 
rb        (11)

 No   No 
› rb depends on the modulated signal bandwidth, BIF
Modulation rate b rb
 (12)
Roll-off factor α  1 BIF

› Common roll-off factor is 0.2

Why the roll-off factor impacts the IF bandwidth?
 ANSWER

Increasing the roll-off factor is equivalent with increasing the

bandwidth or sampling rate. A satellite transponder has a
limited a modulated signal bandwidth.
FDMA VS TDMA (1)

› Assume equal rb for all stations

› Earth stations transmit with the

same [EIRP]

› Stations are operating with the

same link loss with the same
satellite
 FDMA VS TDMA (2)

› With FDMA, the modulated carriers at the input to the satellite

are retransmitted from the satellite as a frequency-division-
multiplexed (FDM) signal.
› Uplink is equal to downlink bit rates
 FDMA VS TDMA (3)

› TDMA uplink bursts are sent via different time slots and
transmitted as a time-division-multiplexed signal from satellite
› Compression buffers are needed in order to convert the input bit
rate rb to the transmitted bit rate rTDMA
 FDMA VS TDMA (4)
› The uplink carrier-to-noise-density ratio is
 C  G 
N   EIRP UN     LOSSES UN  k  (13)
 o  UN  T  UN
› From (8), we know that rTDMA>rb and using same satellite
implies equal [G/T] and [LOSSSES]
rTDMA  for TDMA systems
 C   Eb 
› But, r        (14)
rb  for FDMA systems  No   No 

› To satisfy C/No for a fixed BER, [EIRP] at the earth station

needs to be increased
EIRP TDMA  EIRP FDMA  r TDMA  r b (15)

Why the throughput rate in TDMA is higher than FDMA?

 ANSWER

We first let earth stations to transmit at a bit rate of rb . When

FDMA is used, each station is assigned a different subcarrier.
Thus the bit rate is rb per subcarrier. On the other hand, TDMA
uses only one carrier for all earth stations. Each earth station is
assigned to transmit in a different time slot of length TB out of
the total frame length of TF . The total uplink rate per carrier is rb
TF / TB which is obviously higher rb which is also the bite rate
per subcarrier for FDMA. As shown in (15), The higher rate in
TDMA results in a higher EIRP requirement.
 EXAMPLE

Assuming [C/No] of 86 dBHz is required for a TDMA

transmission with a satellite [G/T] and [LOSSES] of 10 dB and
212 dB, respectively, calculate the transmit power required at the
earth station.
 ANSWER

C  G 
 N   EIRP UN     LOSSES UN  k 
 o  UN  T  UN

EIRP UN  86  10  212  228.6  59.4dBW

P Earth Station  47.4  46  13.4dBW

 DEMAND-ASSIGNED FDMA

› The transponder frequency bandwidth is subdivided into a

number of channels.

› Each channel is assigned to each carrier in use, giving rise to the

Single-Channel-Per-Subcarrier (SCPC) mode of operation.

› Demand assignment may be carried out in a number of ways.

 POLLING METHOD

› A master earth station continuously polls all the earth stations in

a sequence.

› If a call request is encountered, frequency slots are assigned

from the pool of available frequencies by the master station.

› Excessive delay if the number of participating earth stations is

large.
 CENTRALISED RANDOM ACCESS

› Earth stations request calls through the master earth station as

the need arises via a dedicated order wire.

› Frequencies are assigned by the master station and when the

call is completed, the frequencies are returned to the pool.

› If no frequencies are available, the blocked called requests may

be placed in a queue, or a second call attempt may be initiated
by the requesting station.
 DISTRIBUTED RANDOM ACCESS

› Distributed control is exercised at each earth station and no

master station

› All the earth stations are connected through a dedicated

common signalling channel (CSC) and request a channel via
CSC

› Earth stations keep track on the list of available frequency pairs

and choose randomly from it

› Example: Spade system developed by Comsat for use on the

INTELSAT satellites
 DEMAND-ASSIGNED TDMA

› The burst and sub-burst assignments of TDMA are under

software control→ high flexibility in rearranging channels

› The station burst length, Tb or the frame ratio TF /Tb may be

varied as the traffic demand varies.

› Centralised access management may be employed via the

master station

› Distributed access can also be employed where each station

determines its own burst-length requirements
 DISCUSSION
What are the advantages and disadvantages of
having a centralised access over a distributed one?
 ANSWER

With a centralised approach, an allocation

decision can be made fast at the cost of a high
complexity and amount of information sent to
the master station. A distributed approach, on
the other hand is based on all stations to agree
by exchanging information, which is relatively
slower but has a low complexity.
 CODE-DIVISION-MULTIPLE-ACCESS
CDMA (1)
› The signal information is further modulated by the code
waveform to spread the spectrum over the RF bandwidth.

› The systems employing CDMA are also known as spread-

spectrum multiple access(SSMA).

› CDMA can be used with analog and digital signals.

› The modulated signal carries both the information signal and

the code signal, referred to as direct-sequence spread
spectrum(DS/SS)
 CDMA (2)

› Each signal is associated with a

unique code that is used to
Transponder spread the signal in frequency
Bandwidth and/or time

› All signals will be received simultaneously at an earth station

and the desired signal is recovered by correlating with the
unique code.
› The other signals occupying the transponder channel appear
like random noise to the correlation decoder
 CDMA (3)

› A binary symbol random-like sequence, referred to as a PN

code is generated by using a n-stage linear shift register
› The sequence is repeated every 2n-1 symbols referred to as
chips, representing the spread sequence for the data bits
› Chip generation is controlled by a clock, and the chip rate rch
where rch >> rb
 CDMA (4)

› The symbols p(t) with a rate rs are spread by multiplying them

with CDMA code sequences, c(t), with a rate rch and then
transmitted at frequency fc (fu in Rody)
› At the receiver, RF down-conversion is performed and the
autocorrelation function are applied to de-spread the signal
CDMA(5): SPREADING PROCESS

p(t)

Spread by multiplying
with c(t)
CDMA (6): DE-SPREADING PROCESS
 CDMA (7)

› The maximum number of channels, K, in CDMA can be

calculated as Roll-off factor
No
K  1  (1  α)G p (16)
Eb
› Gp is the bandwidth ratio between the spread and un-spread
signals, referred to as processing gain
rch
Gp  (17)
rb
› The throughput efficiency can then be defined as
K
η (18)
Gp
 EXAMPLE

Given a satellite transponder transmitting with BPSK, bandwidth

of 36MHz, a roll-off factor of 0.2, [Eb/No] requirement of 10dB
and information bit rate of 64kps, compute the maximum
transmission rate for the transponder, the processing gain, the

maximum number of channels and the frame efficiency.

 ANSWER

α  0.2,No /Eb  0.1

36MHz
rMax   30MHz
1  0.2
30MHz
Gp   468.75
64kbps

K  1  1.2 * 468.75 * 0.1  57.25  57 channels

η  57/468.75  12.2% very low efficiency

 MULTI-BEAMS SATELLITE

› Satellite transponders reuse the same frequency band and create

non-overlapping spot-beam antennas
› Improve frequency reuse factor by reusing the same frequency in
different spots

› Improve receiver [G/T] due to

Spot-Beam
directional gains
› Each spot beam can carry FDMA,
TDMA, CDMA

› It is also called as SDMA (Space Division Multiple Access)

 INTER-SATELLITE LINKS

› Satellites performing networking in the sky to reduce the number

of earth stations
› Handover between satellites/beams can be done similarly as in
cellular networks treating the spot beam as a base station (inter
& intra) Inter-Satellite Link

› Reduce the traffic from

earth station to satellite
› Eliminate multiple earth
station hops
 INTELSAT
› Spade: Single-Carrier-per-Channel Pulse-Code-Modulated-
Multiple-Access-Demand Assignment
› GEO satellite operated in the two FDMA modes

Signalling Channel to detect

available frequencies

3) Acknowledge
Request from C
2) Request
Access to
Call F

1) Monitor
available
frequencies
 EUTELSAT KA-SAT

› State-of-the-art GEO satellite with a total throughput of

90Gpbs, delivering broadband services up to 20Mbps,
referred to “tooway” service ~ ADSL
› Uses the concept of multi-beams (82 Ka-band spotbeams)
to increase reuse
› Uses state-of-the-art Multi-Frequency TDMA (MF-TDMA)

Joint mix frequency and time

resource allocation
 GLOBALSTAR

› 48 low-orbiting (1400Km altitude) satellites in 8 orbits, inclined

52o w.r.t. the Equator and 6 satellites in each orbital plane

› CDMA is used to maximise

reuse factor and support 30
million users (not
simultaneously).
› Provide data and telephony
services
INTERNETWORKING PROTOCOL
 INTERNET PROTOCOL REFERENCE
MODEL
Internetworking Protocol

› IP: datagram approach that send packets without

guaranteeing the quality of service (e.g., channel reservation)
› TCP: provides a reliable service independent of physical layer
› UDP: best effort service
73
 ALL-IP COMMUNICATIONS

IP Comms

› Communications between users are done by using Internet protocol regardless

the method to transport IP packets
› Satellite networks include broadcasting networks for point-to-point
communications and point-to-multipoint communications.
› Terrestrial networks include LAN, MAN, WAN, cellular networks
› Satellite is equipped with a router, taking IP packet and repackage into frames,
suitable for transmission
74
 SATELLITE IP NETWORK CENTRIC
VIEW
Last Mile Connections First Mile Connections

Transit Connections

75
 IP MULTICAST OVER SATELLITE

› Multicast: send data to multiple destinations simultaneously

while transmitting only a single copy of the data to the network
(e.g., TV, radio)
› GEOCAST project on IP multicast over GEO satellite EU 5th
framework programme

› A choice of best-effort
(UDP) or controlled
quality of service
(TCP)

76
 IP ADDRESS

› 32 bits addresses to denote the source and destinations

› Multicast are denoted with specific addresses in Class D
› Class A-C addresses are reserved for unicast transmissions
77
 INTERNET GROUP MANAGEMENT
PROTOCOL (IGMP)
› The protocol is used to form a multicast group by allowing
users to declare interest in multicast transmission.
› Three types of messages: report, query and leave
› Users first send IGMP report to nearest router, specifying the
address of IP multicast group
› Routers use multicast routing protocols to find a path to the
source as well as sending occasional a IGMP query to users,
confirming their transmission interest
› Users issue IGMP report or leave messages to indicate
whether they are still interested in receiving transmission
78
 IGMP IN SATELLITE NETWORKS

› Each earth stations will send its own responses (IGMP report),
causing flooding in IGMP traffic as it cannot hear what other
earth stations do
› (a), suppress flooding by
assigning a specific beam
for broadcast - $$$

› (b), suppress flooding via

source sending IGMP report
to join the beam- $
79
 MULTICAST ROUTING CONCEPTS
› A route between sender and receivers must be decided, “Tree”
› Group-Shared Tree
- Single distributed tree shared among all sources
- Specify a rendezvous point (RP) for a broadcast group
- Receiver-initiated protocol where receivers first join at RP
- Senders send unicast packets to RP that sends to receivers
› Source-based Tree
- A source can have several trees for different groups
- Sender-initiated protocol: different senders have different
routes
80
 MULTICAST ROUTING (SOURCE-BASED
VS GROUP-SHARED TREES)
Source-based Tree Group-Shared Tree

Different routing for sources

Same routing for sources

S = Source, R= Receiver, RP=Rendezvous Point

81
 SOURCE-BASED TREE MULTICAST
ROUTING PROTOCOL
› Flood packet out to all directions except the one at which the
packet arrived –Reverse Path Flooding (RPF)
› Routers with no IGMP report send prune messages to tell
sources to not sending to them
› Routing infos are calculated by sharing routing table with
neighbours → Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol
(DVMRP)
› Routing infos are calculated from the network map,
constructed by sharing router connectivity infos → Modified
Open Shortest Path First (M-OSPF)
› Protocol-Independent Multicast Dense Mode (PIM-DM): a
multicast routing protocol where general routing infos
generated by other routing protocols is used
82
 GROUP-SHARED TREE MULTICAST
ROUTING PROTOCOL
› Core-based Tree (CBT) protocol
- A set of routers, are chosen to be the "core" router of a
delivery tree (RP)
- Messages to a group are forwarded as unicast messages
toward the core router which forward the messages to all
ongoing interfaces which are part of the delivery tree except
the incoming interface
- All senders use the same routing paths to/from RP router →
bi-directional shared tree
› Protocol-Independent Multicast Sparse Mode (PIM-SM): a
CBT based protocol WHERE the multicast trees/paths from/to
receivers are independent → two uni-directional shared trees
83
 MULTICAST ROUTING PROTOCOL

› All routing protocol use IGMP as the host router interface

through which the hosts can sign in/off to/from multicast groups
84
 EXAMPLE

Most common communication protocols used in IP networks is

CSMA/CD (carrier sense multiple access collision detection). In
CSMA/CD, a node transmits only if it senses the radio channel is
not busy.
Your manager asked
you to use this protocol
to support satellite
multicast in a
GEOCAST satellite.
Can this be done?
 ANSWER

Each earth stations are far apart can not listen/sense to

other earth station transmissions. As a consequence,
every time multicast sources send IGMP query, all
earth stations wanting to participate will send its own
IGMP reports, resulting in significant message flooding.
 IP QUALITY OF SERVICE
MANAGEMENT
› To support delay-sensitive traffic, IP architecture is extended to
provide traffic a quality-of-service (QoS)
› Integrated Service Architecture (Intserv)
- Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP): A path to the receiver
is first set up and the router reserves the resources to provide
QoS if the receiver decides to accept the flow by sending
RSVP PATH and RESV messages
› Differentiated Services Architecture for QoS (Diifserv)
- Traffic priority w/o reserving end-to-end resources for the flow
- In general, Satellite acts as an IP core network to bridge the
access networks and employ Diffserv
87
 QUALITY OF SERVICE CONTROL IN
CORE SATELLITE NETWORKS

› Edge router (ER) has a function to map IntServ to/from

DiffServ traffic and to control flow into/out from the core
network by using the info in RESV message
› RSVP router (R) processes RSVP PATH and RESV by
reserving traffic paths for the flow in IntServ domains
What is the cost impact of changing the Satellite core network to IntServ Qos?
88
 ANSWER

By using IntServ, the resource path must be reserved.

This implies that a fixed amount of resource must be
allocated to that path regardless of the traffic density.
Without increasing the amount of available resources,
the blocking rate to the satellite networks will increase.
Increasing the amount of resources = increasing $$$
 MULTI-PROTOCOL LABEL SWITCHING
(MPLS)
› To provide QoS, mark IP packet with a fixed length label
› On an end-to-end basis, labels combine to define paths called label
switched paths (LSP), similar to VCIs in ATM networks
› QoS are controlled by LSP attributes and routed according to their
class in QoS
› Label can be defined based on hop-by-hop and beforehand
Label Edge
Label Switch
Router
Router

Label Forwarding Table

90
 TRANSMIT CONTROL PROTOCOL (TCP)
› Built on top of IP to provide end-to-end communications
control between users
› Independent of other layers and carries out actions according
packet congestion window size and ACKnowledgement (ACK)
from receivers

› ACK contains packet sequence number information (1st packet

is received and and 2nd is expected, ACK sends “2”)
91
 TCP IN SATELLITE LINKS
› Round-trip time (RTT): long delay caused by the distance from
earth station to satellite to receive acknowledgement ~ 0.55s
› Bandwidth-delay product (BDP): A multiplication between
bandwidth and delay (RTT) that represents the maximum amount of
data that can be transmitted but not yet acknowledged
› Transmission errors: TCP assumes that all errors are caused by
network congestion and reduces its transmission window size in an
attempt to alleviate the congestion, resulting in low rates
› Variable RTT: For non-geo orbits, the propagation delay to and
from the satellite varies over time, affecting the time delay of ACK
and thus the retransmission of packet considered lost/timeout (RTO)
› Intermittent connectivity: For non-geo satellites, handover from
one satellite or from one ground station to another will occur and
might cause packet losses.
92
 EXAMPLE

Given a satellite with 30MHz effective bandwidth with

BPSK modulation and the distance between the ground
stations to the satellite 39000km, calculate the
maximum TCP data transmission packet lengths in
bytes. Assume that the link delay is the equal to space
propagation delay.
 ANSWER

RTT  4 * 39 * 106 /(3 * 108 )  0.42 sec

maximum packet size  30 * 106 * 0.42  1575kB
 HOW TCP WORKS IN SATELLITE LINKS

› congestion windows (cwnd) and slow start threshold (ssthresh) are used to
control the number packet transmissions and congestions
› cwnd is limited by the receiver window size and ssthresh is set when
congestion is detected

› Timeout denotes the waiting time to

receive an ACK from the receiver
› If Timeout expires or an ACK is not
received, reset cwnd to 1 and adjust
ssthresh (slow start algorithm)
› If ACKs are received, increased cwnd until it reaches ssthresh and from there
onward increase the cwnd by 1 TCP packet (congestion window algorithm)
Will TCP be good for satellite communications?
95
 ANSWERS

The standard TCP is obviously bad for satellite

communications, as slowly probing the network for
additional capacity will results in a very long delay in
addition to propagation delays
 TCP PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS (1)

Data received
at receiver

ACK received
at sender

First TCP segment

› B, Tb and 2D are the bandwidth, the packet size (segment) in bits and
RTT for TCP segments
› The utilisation of first TCP data segment, U, DB is
bandwidth
T Tb / B 1
U   delay product
2 D  T 2 D  Tb / B 2 DB  1 (19)
Time to send a packet sec Tb
97
 TCP PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS (2)

Data received
at receiver

ACK received
at sender

› In the slow-start stage, after receiving ACK, sender increases the

transmitted packets exponentially 2i Tb+j, i=0,…,p-1,j=0 where p is ssthresh
› The length of transmitted packets in sec at threshold p, F(p) is then
p 1
F ( p )   2i Tb  ( 2 p  1)Tb (20)
i 0
› The current utilisation of TCP data segments,
F ( p) / B ( 2 p  1)Tb / B 1
U F(p)    (21)
2 pD  F ( p ) / B 2 D  ( 2 p  1)Tb / B 2 pDB
1
( 2 p  1)Tb
98
 TCP PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS (3)

Data received
at receiver

ACK received
at sender

› In congestion avoidance stage, after hitting ssthresh and receiving ACK, sender
increases transmitted packets, 2p-1 + j, j=1,…,q where q is a predefined threshold
› TCP packets transmitted at threshold q, F(p,q), is then
 q p 1 q   q 1
p 1 Tb  2   j   qTb  2 p 1 
F ( p, q)   2i Tb   2 p 1  j Tb
q

 j 1 j 1   2 
i 0 j 0 (22)
› The total utilisation of TCP data segment, U,   q  1 
Tb 2 p  1  q 2 p 1  
F ( p, q ) / B   2 
UF(p,q)   (23)
2 D ( p  q )  F ( p, q ) / B   q  1 
2 BD ( p  q)  Tb 2 p  1  q 2 p 1  
  2 
99
 TCP PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS (4)

Data received
at receiver

ACK received
at sender Maximum
window size

› The maximum window size depends on how fast the receiver can process the
received data.
› Once the window size is maximum, the TCP sender transmits at this maximum
window.
› In the event that an ACK is not received by the sender after RTO, the sender
reduces the slow start threshold by half p=(i+j)/2, effectively reducing the
transmission rate.

100
 SLOW-START ENHANCEMENT

› The bandwidth delay (BD) product of satellite is significantly

higher than the size of TCP packets →inefficient transmissions

› Delayed ACK by the maximum timeout of 500ms and ACK 2nd

TCP segment if received earlier → increase BD efficiency

› Increase initial congestion window cwnd and thus more TCP

segments transmitted and ACK responses → rapid cwnd
increase and save RTT trips

› Set the slow-start threshold based BD product where the

spacing of between ACK is used to estimate bandwidth
101
 LOSS-RECOVERY ENHANCEMENT

› Relatively high BER in satellite communications results in a

high packet loss.
› Fast Retransmission: If 3 duplicate ACKs are received,
retransmit missing packets without waiting for timeouts.
› Fast Recovery: do congestion avoidance instead of a slow-
start stage as in the standard TCP.
› Selective ACKs (SACK): sender transmits missing segments
within a single RTT upon receiving SACK that contains the
information of received packet sequence numbers.

102
 ACK CONGESTIONS IN ASYMMETRIC
NETWORKS
› In asymmetric networks such as VSAT, the return link has a
much lower speed than the forward link.
› ACK traffic might overload the return link, resulting in
congestion.
› Reduce ACKs frequencies by filtering: wait for outbound
segments with data on which to piggyback cumulative ACKs.
› Manage infrequent ACKs via reconstructions: the sender
reconstructs ACKs flow to resemble what would have been if
ACK filtering is not used.
› ACK Congestion Control: explicit congestion notification
(ECN) from the router, informing TCP senders about imminent
congestion without dropping segments.
Will we have ACK congestions in symmetric networks?
103
 ANSWERS

No since ACK traffic is much less than the data

traffic itself.
 INTERRUPTIVE MECHANISM

› An interruptive mechanism Separate TCP

is used to exploit the connections

characteristics of satellite
networks (slow-start).
› Split TCP into multiple
TCPs, with a special TCP
connection running over
the satellite link. Spoofing

› Router suppresses acknowledgements returning from the

receiver, and takes responsibility for retransmitting any
segments lost downstream of the router.
› A router nearby sends back ACKs to give the sender the illusion
of a short delay path (spoof).
 TCP SATELLITE APPLICATIONS
› Bulk data transfer

› Interactive Applications

› Web Caching (Broadcasting)

› Voice Over IP via TCP for real-time applications, Real-time

Transport Protocol (RTP) and RTP Control Protocol (RTPCP)
› RTPCP and RTP protocols provide on top of TCP, more QoS
control via monitoring lost packet counts, jitter, and round-trip
delay time, relevant for real-time applications.

106
 SATELLITE IP COMMUNICATION
NETWORKS (1)
Interworking between networks

Control signals
Network Control
Centre

› Star IP multicast: multicast flows are forwarded from a RSGW (regenerative

satellite gateway) to several return channel satellite terminals (RCST).
› Multicast sources are on the terrestrial network and forward their multicast
flows towards the RSGW.
› RCST communicates to users in other networks via RSGW
 SATELLITE IP COMMUNICATION
NETWORKS (2)

Terrestrial network

Terrestrial network

Network Control
Centre Control signals

› Mesh IP multicast: multicast flows are statically forwarded from a

source RCST to several destinations RCSTs.
› Multicast sources are on terrestrial network and forward their
multicast flows to a source RCST.
 NETWORK DESIGN EXAMPLE

You need to select whether to use FDMA or TDMA for downlink

digital satellite TV transmissions for a specific BER rate and
whether to employ TCP or IP multicast on top of the multiple
access for the downlink transmissions. The bandwidth is assumed
60 MHz and you need to transmit to 2 earth stations with equal
data rates (e.g., equal bandwidth). The transponder back-off is 6
dB and transmits with BPSK modulation. The distance between
the ground stations to the satellite is 39000km and RTT is the
equal to space propagation delay. Justify your choice.
 NETWORK DESIGN EXAMPLE

In FDMA to have equal bandwidth, the transponder will allocate

one subcarrier with a bandwidth of 30 MHz to each station.

From (2), regardless the BER requirement, EIRP of FDMA with 2

subcarriers will always be 6+10log(2)=9dB higher than the EIRP
of a single carrier FDMA.

EIRP of TDMA will always be 10log(2)=3dB higher than EIRP of a

single carrier FDMA in order to support twice higher data rates.
Thus, employing downlink TDMA results in 6dB lower
Transponder EIRP.
 NETWORK DESIGN EXAMPLE

From slides 94 and 95, we know the RTT =0.42s and non-
acknowledged packet size ~ 1600kB due to propagation delay.
The size of normal TCP ACK is around ~64kB → link
underutilised.

Also live broadcasting is a streaming traffic. Thus IP multicasting

employing DiffServ (traffic prioritisation) might be a much better
choice.
Summary
 MULTIPLE ACCESS

› Fixed-Assignment and Demand-Assignment FDMA systems e.g.,

INTELSAT and TDMA e.g., EUTELSAT
› FDMA is a power and capacity limited system due to the non-linear input-
output characteristics of Satellite Transponder for a given SNR/BER level
› TDMA is a power and capacity limited system due to the higher
transmission rates at Satellite Transponder for a given SNR or BER level
› No synchronisation is required for FDMA while in TDMA, a
synchronisation via a global Satellite clock is required e.g., Reference and
Traffic Bursts
› CDMA systems e.g., GLOBALSTAR
› In CDMA systems, the signal is spread across the whole spectrum by
using unique codes → an interference-limited system due spectrum
sharing → significantly lower throughput than FDMA and TDMA systems
› SDMA (Space Division Multiple Access)
 INTERNETWORKING PROTOCOLS (IP)
› IP Multicast transmission: data is sent to multiple destinations (HD-TV)
› Users declare interest in IP multicast via IGMP Protocol and two types of
multicast routing protocols are used to decide the path between source and
destinations, source-based and group-shared trees
› IP Quality of Service control for delay sensitive traffic via resource
reservation (IntServ) and prioritisation (DiffServ) architectures and Transmit
Control Protocol (TCP)
› Impact on TCP parameters; congestion windows (cwnd) and slow start
threshold (ssthresh) that are used to control the number packet
transmissions and congestions
› TCP “bad” behaviours in Satellite links w.r.t. round trip time, bandwidth-
delay product and transmission errors
› TCP modifications for Satellite links such interruptive mechanism, slow-
start and loss-recovery enhancements