A Resource Management Architecture for Mobile Satellite-based Communication Systems

Today's Quality-of-Service (QoS) architectures for packet switched networks, especially reservation-based architectures such as IntServ, strongly depend on transmission systems with link characteristics that do not change over time. In wireless network access technologies however, this requirement makes implementation of QoS challenging as links change due to effects such as shadowing or fading caused by node mobility. In this paper, a novel cross-layer reservation-based QoS system is presented. It is able to deal with changing link conditions and notifies the affected applications with the help of feedback messages. This allows graceful degradation in compliance with the requirements of the applications. The architecture presented in this paper focuses on a satellite-based network for rescue teams during a disaster scenario. Based on a geostationary satellite and highly mobile ground stations, this network is characterized by long transmission delays and small, changing link capacities. The system offers a resource reservation scheme on the physical layer which is integrated with the approach presented here to design a cross-layer resource management architecture. This results in a reservation system for high-latency, low-capacity and unstable links.