Performance of MIL-STD 188-184 in support of IP traffic over UHF satcomm dedicated channels

Ultra high frequency (UHF) tactical satellite communications (i.e. UHF TACSAT) will be utilized to provide range extension for the terrestrial components of the lower echelon tactical Internet (TI) for the first digitized division (FDD). The terrestrial components include single channel ground radio system (SINCGARS) and enhanced position location system (EPLRS). Because of the limited UHF TACSAT resources (i.e. number of channels) and the nature of the lower echelon TI traffic (i.e. relatively short packet sizes and multi-destined), a multi-access protocol is required to allow for multiple users to make efficient use of the UHF TACSAT channel. The UHF TACSAT multi-access capability is governed by MIL-STD 188-184. A qualitative as well as a quantitative assessment of the MIL-STD 188-184 performance for passing IP traffic over UHF TACSAT dedicated channels is presented