| | Medium Access Control Protocols Performance in Satellite Communications |
 | | MAC protocols are designed to coordinate the transmission of packets, retransmission of damaged packets, and resolution of collisions among stations during a contention period. |
 | | MAC protocols for satellite communication can be classified based on their functionality with respect to the static or dynamic nature of the channel, the centralized or distributed control mechanism for channel assignments, and the adaptive behavior of the control algorithm. |
 | | The first two groups of protocols are contention-free protocols by either static allocation (fixed assignment) or dynamic allocation (demand assignment) for the channel, while the last three groups of protocols are contention-oriented protocols where congestion takes place on either the data channel (random access) or the signaling channel (hybrid of random access and reservation). |
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