Marjorie L. Weibel

Abstract: The results of a series of data communication tests, which define the digital end-to-end performance of the Advanced Communication Technology Satellite (ACTS), are presented. The experiment consisted of a test set characterization to determine the effect of the test set on the results, a preliminary characterization to define the failure/nonperformance outcome thresholds, and a full characterization. The experiments' design, execution, and analysis comply with the American National Standards X3.102 and X3.141. The tests showed that ACTS has a very clean data channel (only one lost byte was recorded during all the tests), the X.25 packet mode did not perform as well as expected, and the parameter estimates did not vary substantially over time or destination location.

Keywords: satellite communications; advanced communications technology satellites (ACTS); ANSI X3.102; ANSI X3.141

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