MULTICAST PROTOCOL USING RETRANSMISSION VIA COLLISION FOR PACKET SATELLITE CHANNELS

A multicast (point-to-multipoint) protocol of a satellite broadcast ch annel by a source and many destinations is presented and its performan ce characteristics are analyzed. We propose a new time-domain multicas t scheme for packet satellite channels, retransmission via collisions protocol (called RVCP). RVCP is classified to the automatic repeat req uest (ARQ) of the multi-selective-repeat scheme and does not require i ndividual channels for each receiving station to request for broadcast packets that have been received incorrectly. Our analytical models sh ow that RVCP performs considerably better than the other protocols, pa rticularly in the situation that packet error rate is less than 10(-4) or there are a large number of destinations. It is an excellent chara cteristic of RVCP that the equipment of the source station need not in crease in proportion to the number of destinations, too. And since RVC P is a relatively simple protocol; It is easy to be implemented.