Method and apparatus for medium access control for integrated services packet-switched satellite networks

摘要

A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure for communicating data from a first node to a second node has been described. The method comprises the steps of receiving input data at the first node, transmitting a resource request having a resource metric from the first node to an allocating agent, receiving an allocation of resource units according to the resource metric, the resource units comprising at least one DAMA channel resource metric and at least one RA channel resource unit, queuing the input data into the DAMA channel buffer, dequeuing input data from the DAMA channel buffer into the RA channel buffer according to a comparison between a predicted transmission delay and a delay threshold, and transmitting the dequeued input data in the RA channel buffer via the RA resource units. The article of manufacture comprises a data storage device tangibly embodying instructions to perform the method steps described above. The apparatus comprises a receiver for receiving input data, a DAMA channel buffer for accepting the input data, a resource unit request module, operatively coupled to the transmitter and the receiver, the resource unit request module for generating a resource request metric when indicated by an information rate of the input data, and for receiving an allocation of resource units via the receiver, and a channel selection module, for dequeuing input data from the DAMA channel buffer to an RA channel buffer according to a predicted channel delay and a delay threshold.