Application of the access network concept of ETSI to the on-board processing system of the European Space Agency (ESA)

This paper describes the application, to the onboard processing (OBP) system of the European Space Agency (ESA), of the access network (AN) concept and related protocols which have been standardised by the European Telecommunication Standardisation Institute (ETSI). The advantages of this approach as well as mandatory modifications to the ETSI protocols are listed. The mission of the OBP system is to offer ISDN (integrated services digital network) services to the European continent via a geostationary satellite. These standard services, providing connections via primary rate access (PRA) and basic rate access (BRA), are complemented with services for which satellites have a long tradition, i.e. multi- and broad-cast services but at multiples of 64 kbit/s