METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REAL TIME DOWN-LINK SCHEDULING IN A SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

摘要

A method and apparatus are provided for scheduling,in real-time, the order in which data packets from aplurality of uplink channels 40-55 are organized in adownlink channel 60 of a satellite communications network5. The satellite 10 includes uplink and downlinkchannels for conveying data packets over channels betweenuser terminals 15-30, ground stations 35 and other userterminals. Queues 104-110 in the satellite 10 collectdata packets from uplinks 40-55 and output the datapackets to the downlink 60 using a bandwidth that isdynamically allocated. A scheduler 152 allocates thebandwidth to at least one queue 104-110 and continuouslychanges the amount of bandwidth allocated to each activequeue 104-110 while the queue 104-110 is buffering datapackets between the uplinks 40-55 and downlink 60. Thescheduler 152 allocates bandwidth based upon a priority-class packet service schedule 200 calculated based upontraffic parameters associated with each active queue 104-110 (steps 306 and 308).