Analysis of IP voice conferencing over EuroSkyWay satellite system

Satellites are foreseen to be complementary to future terrestrial networks in deploying multimedia communication systems. The use of geostationary multibeams and on-board processing provides a great opportunity for the speedy deployment of real time services such as IP telephony services over satellites. The effects of IP telephony transport over satellite channels have not been investigated in detail. The paper presents an overview of the VIP-TEN project architecture and the VoIP measurement campaign over the EuroSkyWay test-bed. The results show that geostationary satellites can carry VoIP traffic and offer a good quality service in terms of packet loss and jitter, and medium to poor quality in terms of packet delay. The paper also analyses the delays in setting/joining audio conferences and multicast group management over satellites.