DAMA - Demand Assigned Multiple Access

Demand Assigned Multiple Access (DAMA) is a technique whereby a number of users share a limited set of channels. It is a special form of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA). Each user is allocated a particular time slot for transmission and reception. Within each TDMA frame, there are a number of different user data rates and burst rates available to cater for differences in demand from users. When a particular link is no longer in use, the bandwidth is immediately returned to a “central pool” for reuse by others.

DAMA is used in satellite communication to allocate transmission channels on a call-by-call basis.