Satellite bandwidth requirements for an MCS based multimedia conference

Videoconferencing has always been associated with deterministic networks or circuit switched networks (physical or virtual). In the past, it was almost unthinkable to send voice and video over an undeterministic network like Ethernet. However, recent trends in the field of multimedia communications (audio, video and documents) have indicated that it is not only possible but also practical to carry such communications over Ethernet. The MCS (Multimedia Conferencing System) which was recently developed and implemented by the Network Research Group, School of Computer Sciences, USM is a full blown audio, video and document conferencing system that works on classical Ethernet as well as satellite networks using the RSW Control Criteria. This paper discusses the bandwidth requirements of using the MCS system on satellite-based networks.