Physical Channel Access (PCA): Time and Frequency Access Methods Emulation in NS-2

TL;DR

This paper introduces an NS-2 module called PCA that simulates various time and frequency access methods like MF-TDMA, enabling detailed performance evaluation for satellite and similar communication networks.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel NS-2 module for emulating diverse access methods on shared links, facilitating performance analysis of MF-TDMA-based systems like DVB-RCS2.

Findings

PCA accurately models delays based on lower layer parameters.

It enables simulation of different access methods for performance evaluation.

The implementation is adaptable for other MF-TDMA applications.

Abstract

We present an NS-2 module, Physical Channel Access (PCA), to simulate different access methods on a link shared with Multi-Frequency Time Division Multiple Access (MF-TDMA). This tech- nique is widely used in various network technologies, such as satellite communication. In this context, different access methods at the gateway induce different queuing delays and available capacities, which strongly impact transport layer performance. Depending on QoS requirements, design of new congestion and flow control mechanisms and/or access methods requires evaluation through simulations. PCA module emulates the delays that packets will experience using the shared link, based on descriptive parameters of lower layers characteris- tics. Though PCA has been developed with DVB-RCS2 considerations in mind (for which we present a use case), other MF-TDMA-based appli- cations can easily be simulated by adapting input parameters. Moreover, the presented implementation details highlight the main methods that might need modifications to implement more specific functionality or emulate other similar access methods (e.g., OFDMA).