DRIFS-TDMA: a proposal for a satellite access distributed-control algorithm for multimedia traffic in a faded environment

Most demand assignment TDMA(1) satellite access protocols use centralised-control access schemes rather than distributed ones because their simplicity and robustness usually compensate for the longer allocation delay. Starting from the FODA/IBEA(2) centralisedcontrol protocol, we studied two distributed-control protocols, named DRIFS(3) and FEEDERS(4) respectively, for accessing a geostationary satellite channel. Multimedia traffic and faded environments were considered in the study of both the access schemes. This paper presents the DRIFS proposal, together with the recovery procedures from critical events, whose handling is central to the discussion of a distributed satellite access protocol. Probabilities of such events are also estimated. Reference [12] presents the FEEDER proposal, while in [13] the reader can find the results of a comparison between the two schemes obtained by means of simulation.