Satellite communication framework and control method thereof

A satellite communication (SATCOM) framework, comprising:

• a satellite system controller;
• at least one satellite transponder, communicating with the satellite system controller;
• and
• a plurality of remote terminals, each including a modem, a router, and a terminal agent, wherein:
• the terminal agent is configured to, based on a current allowable data rate or resource entitlement for the remote terminal distributed by the satellite system controller and measurements of a current router queue size and a current router packet arrival rate, use a delayed uplink resource assignment for the modem together with a minimal-cost-variance (MCV)-based flow-control policy to adjust a future router queue size, a future router packet arrival rate and further update the delayed uplink resource request for the modem for a time after an uplink allocation delay, and
• the modem is configured to communicate with the satellite system controller through the at least one satellite transponder and also with the router, perform modulation and demodulation between digital data of the router and analog signals of the at least one satellite transponder, and manage packet loss and delay according to the future router queue size and the future router packet arrival rate forecasted by the terminal agent,
• the plurality of remote terminals includes N remote terminals, wherein:
• the uplink allocation delay lasts D epochs, wherein D is a positive integer and dependent on specific communication conditions and operational objectives;
• for an i-th (i=1, . . . , N) remote terminal, a state vector variable xi(n)∈D+3 at epoch n is defined as
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• where {tilde over (q)}ir(n) is the current router queue size, representing a difference between the current router queue size qir(n) and a desired router queue size Qir, dir(n) is the current router packet arrival rate, xim(n)∈D is the delayed uplink resource assignment for the modem, representing an uplink resource assignment for the modem delayed by D units of time, and ai(n) is the current allowable data rate or resource entitlement for the i-th remote terminal distributed by the satellite system controller;
• and
• the terminal agent of the i-th remote terminal is configured to control the future router queue size and the future router packet arrival rate of the i-th remote terminal at epoch (n+D) by determining a dynamical state vector variable xi(n+1) through xi(n+1)=Aixi(n)+Biui(n)+Giwi(n), where constant coefficients
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• wi(n) is a measurement error due to fluctuations in competing traffic;
• bir is a constant gain, βir is a preset constant;
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