Patent ID: 6381228
Filing Date: 2002-04-30
Classification: H04B,H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
A demand assigned multiple access system for coordinating the transmission of data on a processing satellite uplink and downlink in a satellite communications network, said system comprising:a user Earth terminal, said user Earth terminal including a media access control layer including a plurality of media access control channels for transmitting data on the uplink, wherein one of the control channels is a contentious shared reservation channel and one of the control channels is a non-contentious shared data channel, said terminal transmitting a reservation request to the satellite on the contentious control channel to bid for an available time slot to transmit the data on the non-contentious shared data channel; at least one cell switch positioned on the satellite and receiving the uplink transmissions from the terminal on the satellite uplink, said at least one switch identifying the reservation request; and a DAMA processor positioned on the satellite and receiving the reservation request from the cell switch, said processor processing the reservation request to determine whether to grant, deny or delay the reservation request based on predetermined criteria, said processor generating a reservation grant message to be transmitted on the satellite downlink that includes information of the time, frequency and duration for transmitting the data on the non-contentious shared data channel if the request is granted.