Considerations for Isochronous Data Services for the Proximity-1 Space Link
Jay L. Gao · NASA Technical Reports Server (NASA) · 2006
Isochronous means having equal time difference. The term Isochronous describes a system where the time difference between arrival and departure of data is constant. However, one can also consider degrees of isochronicity by measuring the consistency in the latency of a system. Deterministic systems (such as TDMA) has higher degree of isochronous property because resource assignments are static. For system that dynamically shares resources, variations in latency can still be controlled. Proximity-1 is not a deterministic protocol in the sense that it does not designate specific time slots to the transmissions of data and control messages. However, is it still sufficiently isochronous for carrying real-time traffic?