QoS on LEO satellites

This paper discusses the role played by wireless network infrastructure in mobile commerce applications. The user's perception of service quality depends on the available resources and capabilities of the network. The new generation of low earth orbit (LEO) mobile satellite networks, deployed at altitudes ranging from 500 km to 2000 km, are well suited to handle multimedia traffic and to offer end-users equipped with hand-held devices at low cost-per minute access to network services. A wide range of multimedia services and applications are expected to provide users with QoS based asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology. LEO satellite networks provide significant wide area coverage, unique broadcast capability, ability to meet different QoS requirements, the ability to communicate with hand-held devices and low cost access. The main resources in the LEO networks are satellite radio bandwidth and the buffer capacity of the onboard ATM switch. The most important ATM resource management function is connection and call admission control. The real objective of this article is to introduce the general framework of resource reservation in multimedia LEO satellite networks which offers a unified approach to handle all the important aspects of resource reservation and radio-resource management functions required by E-commerce and mobile commerce applications.