Store-and-Forward and Data Relay Satellite Communications Services

Abstract

Commercial telecommunications satellite systems that provide fixed (FSS), mobile (MSS), or broadcasting (BSS) satellite services provide essentially “real-time” communications to satisfy the market needs of their commercial customers or support military communications requirements. The service is not precisely simultaneous in that there is close to a quarter second delay in the case of a satellite relay that travels from Earth to a geosynchronous satellite and then back to Earth. For normal commercial satellite services to support voice, data links, radio or audio channels, videoconferencing, or television service, the satellite link is provided on as close to a real-time basis as is technically possible.