Design of a meteor scatter communication network for vehicle tracking

Meteor scatter communication operating in the low VHF band, using the ionized trails of meteors entering the atmosphere as free naturally occurring satellite channels, represents a low-cost alternative technology for automatic vehicle location and vehicle communication. The primary issues in the design of a network capable of supporting in excess of 100000 vehicles are described. One of the key issues is contention within the network due to the presence of more than one vehicle within the footprint created by each meteor trail. A technique for predicting the probability of contention in a dense meteor scatter network is described. The technique was used as a tool for the design of network protocols