This project deals with a communication systems problem which has great potential interest. As relatively inexpensive satellite earth stations become more universally available, it is crucial to efficiently couple these stations to terrestrial local area networks. Several satellite interconnection network architectures have been developed; however, in none of these architectures is any provision made for dealing with satellite link congestion. Link congestion refers to a gateway receiving input traffic from the link at a rate exceeding the output to the local area network. This research focuses on the congestion problem and its effect on performance. Specifically, researchers will develop queueing network performance models, develop simulation models of network behavior, investigate and compare the congestion effect of various network protocols, and evaluate the performance of current network architectures.
