PACSIM: Using Simulation in Designing a Communications Satellite

Abstract

The Naval Postgraduate School is developing a small, experimental, low-orbit packet radio satellite for launch in 1995. It is the first for use by the amateur radio community to implement spread spectrum communications. To aid in designing the spacecraft's communications network, we have developed a packet-level, reusable, object-oriented simulation model, PACSIM, which: fully emulates the activity of users in the network; has the ability to provide information on these measures in several thousand different scenarios. We describe this satellite-user network and elucidate the strong interdependence of design factors. Simulation results are presented. Also, we critique the use of simulation as a decision aid for assessing the effect of design decisions such as data transfer rate, spacecraft memory allocation for stare-forward and capture.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1992
Accession Number
ADA257857

Entities

People

  • Russell Gottfried

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artificial Satellites
  • California
  • Communications Protocols
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Data Transmission
  • Frequency
  • Geographic Regions
  • Operating Systems
  • Operations Research
  • Reliability
  • Satellite Communications
  • Simulations
  • Space Systems
  • Spacecraft
  • Spacecraft Orbits
  • Spread Spectrum

Fields of Study

  • Computer science
  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Parallel and Distributed Computing.
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Satellites