FAST PACKET BASED ON-BOARD SWITCHING FOR ADVANCED BUSINESS SERVICES

Current proposed On-Board Switching architectures are based on the circuit switched technique common to terrestrial central off ices and satellite demand assignment (DAMA) systems. These architectures were first developed when the primary application for satellite communications was point to point voice trunking. Future business networks will be required to carry not only voice and circuit switched data/video traffic, but also highly bursty traffic encountered in connecting high speed Local Area Networks (LAN's). Also they will need to offer point to multipoint service. Candidate architectures for future business applications will be based on hybrid circuit/packet switches or advanced fast packet switches. These will be combined with suitable network management and congestion control techniques to ensure proper availability and delay characteristics for delay sensitive traffic. These techniques offer a more flexible approach to the handling of a diverse services mix, but require greater autonomous operation of the on-board switching payload. This paper will review some of the features and applications of Private Business Networks and will describe a fast packet technique which a Spar Aerospace led study team developed in support of a Canadian demonstration mission that could be hosted on an operational ANIK spacecraft in the mid-nineties.