QoS mechanisms for satellite communications

Bandwidth in Satellite systems is a resource typically scarce and expensive. To increase efficiency and contain costs of satellite communications, bandwidth on demand (BoD) mechanisms are often employed, able to make shared resource utilization efficient. Adopting the proper Quality of Service (QoS) approach is of paramount importance to allow the optimal response and guarantee target performance to the most widespread TCP/IP applications, in strict co-existence and in collaboration with BoD mechanisms. This paper addresses a performance evaluation when enabling QoS in DVB-RCS satellite architecture, harmonized with its specific BoD access scheme. The scope of the paper is to describe a solution of priority mapping to multiple queues with the aim of optimize performance experienced at application layer. The analysis has been performed using a satellite network emulator based on a cluster of Linux PCs and custom software, with a flexible setup in terms of Quality of Service and priority mappings.