Satellite communications system and method of supporting atm cell transmissions in a dvb environment

Abstract

ATM cells ( ) are encapsulated within a DVB satellite transmission environment ( ) to provide satellite broadband capabilities ( ). as shown in FIG. Specifically, DVB multiplexing (as opposed to ATM multiplexing), either at the ground station ( ) associated with a content provider ( ) or within a satellite ( ) itself, consolidates the use of a mapping function ( ) between the Program Identity (PID) of an MPEG transport (data-) stream and an ATM physical layer (PHY). More particularly, robust packaging of full ( ) and partial ( ) ATM, cells within a DVB transport stream packet ( ) is supported by a system-wide association between PIDs and ATM PHYs, whereby an addressed terminal or subscriber unit ( ) reassembles ATM cells ( ) based on PID information contained in received DVB transport stream packets ( ). In the event that ATM cell information is dispersed ( ) between different DVB transport stream packets ( ), buffering of the PID-related information allows subsequent reconstruction of the related ATM cell. All ATM processing is hence accomplished in an ATM domain, with onward routing controlled by an ATM switch fabric core ( ) responsive to ATM PHY data.