Crosslink architectures for a multiple satellite system

Several candidate crosslink communications architectures are described for a packet-switched, low-altitude, multiple satellite system (MSS). One architecture represents a frequency-division approach, in which a cellular concept is combined with dynamic time-domain allocation within a cell. A second architecture uses an unsynchronized space-time division approach consisting of directional antennas and random accessing. A third architecture uses toroiclal antennas with unsynchronized random accessing. The recommended architecture uses a synchronized space-time division approach, consisting of directional antennas and contention-based pair-wise scheduling. This architecture, called PRS (Pseudo-random Scheduling) is found to have significantly reduced power and bandwidth requirements relative to the other approaches.