ION SYSTEM

In a satellite transponder communications system operating in a time division multiple access mode, each earth station transmits data in a burst format. All bursts within a single transponder frame are synchronized to a special reference burst which contains no data communications. A single earth station sends out the reference burst as well as its normal burst, and in the case of multi transponders and multi transponder frames, the single reference station sends out all of the reference bursts for the various transponder frames. Data to be transmitted may be received in many different forms and included within the same burst because of the modular arrangement of the earth stations. Individual terrestrial interface modules receive data in various forms, convert the data into bit form which is compatible with the TDMA system, store the converted bit stream and hold the compressed block of data until a multiplexer requests the block of data for inclusion into the earth station's transmitted burst. The arrangement of blocks of data within a burst and the timing and duration of a burst is controlled by digital words stored in a memory. Complete reordering of burst times and the arrangement of blocks of data within a burst is accomplished by changing the words stored in the memory. A comparable system on the receive side of the earth station extracts blocks of data in selected bursts for conveyance to selected terrestrial interface modules.