PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF AN IMPROVED PRMA PROTOCOL FOR LOW-EARTH-ORBIT MOBILE COMMUNICATION-SYSTEMS

Future mobile communication systems will be characterized by the inter working of several networks that will be integrated into a unique syst em. The satellite component and the terrestrial one will use as far as possible the same protocols. This work is concerned with Medium Acces s Control (MAC) protocols. In particular, Packet Reservation Multiple Access (PRMA) has been considered as a good candidate for terrestrial cellular systems, since it allows high multiplexing gains, dynamic PRM A carrier allocation to cells, easy management of integrated voice and data traffic and a near-transparent behaviour with respect to user mo bility. The main aim of this preliminary work is to investigate the su itability of the PRMA protocol for application to Low Earth Orbit Mobi le Satellite Systems (LEO-MSSs). Moreover, we have proposed a novel ve rsion of the PRMA protocol, named PRMA with Hindering States (PRMA-HS) , that is particularly suitable for application in LEO systems. This n ew technique has shown very promising results in terms of both packet dropping probability and throughput. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.