On the effects of traffic mixtures in direct broadcast satellite networks

In this paper we present a multi-criterion control simulation in a realistically complex environment of a satellite network, involving non-symmetric up and downlinks. Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) networks carrying heterogeneous traffic is characterized with challenges, such as high traffic burstiness, wireless channel dynamics, and large, but limited capacity. On the other hand, there are system characteristics that can be leveraged to address these challenges such as in centralized topology, different levels in Quality of Service (QoS) and priorities, availability of side information about channel conditions, flexibility in delivery of delay insensitive traffic, etc. We have developed an Adaptive Resource Allocation and Management (ARAM) system that takes the advantage of such characteristics to maximize the utilization of the available capacity on the forward DBS link, while maintaining QoS in the presence of channel effects and congestion in the network. Since variable-bit-rate (VBR) video traffic is given priority over available-bit-rate (ABR) data traffic in the ARAM concept, in this paper we investigate the impact of the fraction of VBR load in overall load. Keywordsvideo and data traffic mixture, wireless channel, satellite networks, link utilization, QoS.