A simulation tool to validate and compare satellite TDMA access schemes

This paper proposes an architecture design for a tool suitable for emulating DA-TDMA (demand-assignment-time division multiple access) satellite access schemes. The tool presented, named FRACAS, is particularly suitable for comparing the performance of different satellite channel allocation policies. Using FRACAS, a service provider can choose from different policies for sharing a satellite channel among a number of users. Some allocation policies, selected from those available in the literature, are built-in, while others can be designed from scratch and added without much effort. The parameters of the built-in allocation policies can easily be changed in order to exploit the full potential of the allocation schemes. FRACAS’s features permit the optimisation of satellite resource usage in accordance with the traffic pattern supported. FRACAS enables research teams and students to explore and compare different multiple access schemes, and to develop simulation runs for various kinds of service-induced traffic, including aggregate traffic, which is typical in a local area network (LAN) interconnection environment.