On random and dedicated access methods in DVB-RCS2 for reliable delivery of sensing-data+

Owing to the variety of traffic profiles that Machine to Machine and SCADA applications may generate, this work focuses on the applicability of a DVB-RCS2 terminal, configured with the SCADA system profile, when clusters of sensor nodes exchange data via satellite toward a central operational control station using TCP/IP connections. We propose a realistic architecture for integrating wireless sensor and satellite networks, covering technological issues from the access layer to the transport and session layers; in our scenario, uncorrelated sensor sources generate measurements' data, which are multiplexed by a satellite gateway before being encapsulated and delivered through TCP/IP flows. According to the traffic nature and the available access methods in the satellite terminal, the suitability of a random access method in place of a dedicated one is an open issue, when throughput and delivery delay are the performance metrics at transport layer. This work aims at investigating when the satellite random access methods based on successive interference cancellation are convenient in terms of access delay and employed resources, by guaranteeing a performance, in terms of throughput, comparable to that obtained by means of demand assignment multiple access systems.