Sensible: IP-layer dynamic bandwidth management for DVB-RCS network subdomains

摘要

Broadband communication via satellite systems finds applications in several contexts where other technologies are not available or economically not convenient. Examples are remote areas, disaster struck areas, or vessels/ships. The scarce availability and the high cost of the bandwidth impose to improve flexibility in bandwidth management and dynamic allocation, especially on the shared return link. Typically, this capability is available only to the satellite operator (SO). An innovative dynamic bandwidth management of satellite capacity for the return link has been developed and prototyped as an Internet protocol-based solution. This solution allows small operators renting bandwidth from the satellite operator and providing services to final customers, managing the permanently assigned resources in a flexible and efficient way. The scope of the paper is to illustrate this technique to achieve the dynamic bandwidth management for a subgroup of satellite terminals (subdomain) by using a centralized controller and distributed software with IP shaping capabilities, without interacting with the satellite operator. This approach has been applied in particular to a satellite maritime ship owner, which is thus able to dynamically distribute capacity among satellite terminals installed onboard of its ship fleet as required, as a network operator. The presented results are the outputs of simulations performed with the NS2 simulator and tests by using real hardware.