The Gigabit Satellite Network, a project jointly sponsored by ARPA and NASA, will provide longhaul STS-3 (155.54 Mb/s) and STS-12 (622.08 Mb/s) pointto-point and point-to-multipoint full-duplex services over NASA's Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS). Data multiplexing over the satellite will be accomplished using TDMA techniques coordinated with the switching and beam hopping f...

In this paper, a distributed multicast routing scheme is introduced for multi-layered satellite IP networks, which include GEO, MEO, and LEO layers. This scheme aims to minimize the total cost of multicast trees in the satellite network. Multicast trees are constructed and maintained in the dynamic satellite network topology in a distributed manner. Simulation results are provided to evaluate t...

To accomplish network layer integration of terrestrial and satellite IP networks, special exterior gateway protocols are needed. In this work, a new exterior gateway protocol calledBorder Gateway Protocol Satellite version (BGP-S) is introduced that enables automated discovery of paths that go through the satellite network. This protocol is designed to work in only one terrestrial gateway in ev...

The development of spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) aims to promote environmental management. However, technological advances, organizational and regulatory frameworks available do not seem sufficient for the realization of such an objective. For many authors, the real contribution of SDIs depends on the answers they provide to their users. This paper presents an original methodological appr...

The recent development of communication devices and wireless network technologies continues to advance the new era of the Internet and telecommunications. The various “things”, which include not only communication devices but also every other physical object on the planet, are also going to be connected to the Internet, and controlled through wireless networks. This concept, which is referred t...

The future fourth generation wireless heterogeneous networks aim to integrate various wireless access technologies and to support the IMS (IP multimedia subsystem) sessions. In this paper, we propose the Loosely Coupled Satellite-Cellular-WiMAXWLAN (LCSCW2) and the Tightly Coupled SatelliteCellular-WiMAX-WLAN (TCSCW2) interworking architectures. The LCSCW2 and TCSCW2 architectures use the loose...