A comparison of the implementation and annual operating costs of IDR and TDMA in the intelsat system

Abstract

AbstractThe outcome of a preliminary systems cost study which compares the cost of operating INTELSAT intermediate data rate (IDR) and time division multiple access (TDMA) stations under various conditions is reported. The differences in the annual cost of operating the two candidate methods over the range of 1 to 1000 terrestrial channels are derived under the conditions of no CME, DSI only and the use of DCME. For DCME the effect of one, two, three and four destinations per DCME is considered. The results show that while the initial cost of the TDMA equipment is higher than with IDR, the annual cost of operating the systems is dominated by the space segment costs. For this reason the greater bandwidth efficiency, inherent multidestinational capability and ease of capacity expansion of the TDMA system give it a lower annual operating cost, even at fairly moderate earthstation capacities (e.g. for DCME with two destinations TDMA becomes cheaper than IDR for capacities in excess of about 300 channels). There are attributes of both systems which will also influence the network planners' decision. The IDR system is modular in that costs associated with implementation are incurred more gradually than with the TDMA system. Furthermore, IDR is to a great extent an extrapolation of the current FDM/FM/FDMA practice. However, since the equipment costs are small compared to the space segment charges, it may prove advantageous to adopt the lowercost system as soon as possible. In addition, the TDMA system offers significant long‐term advantages of low‐cost expansion and the ability to reconfigure the system with minimal or no loss of traffic.