SS/TDMA scheduling for satellite clusters

The authors present a novel approach to the optimal time-slot assignment problem for a general satellite-switched time-division multiple-access (SS/TDMA) satellite cluster with intersatellite links (ISLs) interconnection. The proposed allocation algorithm accounts for the following: systems with any number of satellites; each satellite covers an arbitrary number of zones; no onboard buffering at the satellites; and ISLs with arbitrary capacities. They present an analogy between the satellite cluster scheduling problem and the modified openshop scheduling problem. Using this analogy the authors introduce a heuristic algorithm and an optimal branch-and-bound algorithm. They investigate the performance of the proposed heuristic both by theoretical bounds and by comparing the simulation results produced by the heuristic with the optimal results. In all cases the heuristic algorithm results are within 10% of the optimum.<>