Rural e-mail system for the Sumbandila satellite
Adrian Cooke · SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University) · 2007
This thesis describes the design and implementation of a rural e-mail system for the Sumbandila satellite.The rural e-mail system was developed during a project sponsored by the Department of Communications of the South African government.The complete Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) layer structure of the protocol architecture used on the satellite hardware and software is described.The equivalent implementation of the OSI layer on the ground station hardware is given.This includes the adaptation of the soundmodem Open Source Software modem to work for the e-mail system's OSI layer.The design of the Application Layer e-mail system is described and the implementation of this design using the Python, Korn Shell and C programming environments is also given.The procedures used to test the system for reliability and the use of a database to create detailed logs of the e-mail system is shown to have generated a reliable system that is easily maintained.A critical evaluation of the system is provided in the last chapter.i