A Markovian Queueing Model of Multiple Access Communications in Space

Abstract

This paper describes a Markovian queueing network model of multiple access communication that captures considerations for both spacecraft operations and data transmissions duty cycle. Several performance metrics were presented to measure bandwidth efficiency and latency from both the communications and operations perspectives. Leveraging the mathematical framework derived from Jackson queueing theory, we demonstrate the use of this model by applying it to notional relay networks envisioned for Mars, Lunar, and Earth environments and analyzing the performance between frequency and code division multiple access approaches. We conclude this paper with discussions on the modeling results and the pros and cons of our model.