Quality-of-service-oriented protocol for supporting multimedia services over a stratospheric platform communication network

A quality-of-service-oriented medium access protocol "MAC" protocol is suggested for delivering multimedia services through a stratospheric aeronautical platform wireless communication system. The invented protocol exploits the statistical multiplexing of asynchronous transfer mode "ATM" technology. Combing the reservation- and contention-based access schemes in a single protocol allows the platform communication system at an altitude of 20 km to guarantee the service quality requirements for the diverse services. Exploiting the flexibility of the protocol as well as the low encountered propagation delay of the wireless link permit constant bit rate "CBR", variable bit rate "VBR" and available bit rate "ABR" services to be efficiently multiplexed without violating quality constraints. The effects of channel capacity and its associated limitations on the network performance are discussed and pragmatic solutions are suggested. Different service priority schemes are presented and numerical results are discussed. The obtained results dictate the wireless ATM platform communication as a promising means for the next-generation wireless communication system.