Satellite Video Teleconferencing Control

In recent years, we have seen an appreciable increase in the use of satellites for video teleseminar and two room video teleconferencing. In this paper, we describe the system that we have developed for conducting over satellite, interactive video conferencing among more than two participating rooms using TDMA technology. This new service makes use of the unique broadcast capabilities of satellite networks in combination with special network control to dynamically reconfigure video connections, as needed, in the course of a conference. The nine earth station DCTN* network is equipped to support a considerable number of simultaneous conferences of this new multi-point type.