Scheduling TDMA Bursts in the Presence of Interference.

In satellite and metropolitan area communication systems, the uplink or downlink signals of a multi-channel time-division multiple-access (TDMA) repeater employing frequency reuse can interfere with each other. Frequency reuse conserves the radio spectrum but relies on the directional properties of the antenna system to prevent co-channel interference. Interference can occur as a result of antenna beam overlap in nearly co- located stations or because of multipath interference from surrounding buildings. The problem is to find a frame assignment for each channel, scheduling around the interference, so that none of the remote stations belonging to an interfering combination transmits at the same time as another station in that combination and so that traffic demand is satisfied.