The discharge characteristics of a prototype ion source was investigated, which was developed and upgraded for the NBI (Neutral Beam Injection) heating system of KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research). The ion source was designed for the arc discharge of magnetic bucket chamber with multi-pole cusp fields. The ion source was discharged by the emission-limited mode with the control of filament heating voltage. The maximum ion density was 4 times larger than the previous discharge controlled by a space-charge-limited mode with fully heated filament. The plasma (ion) density and arc current were proportional to the filament voltage, but the discharge efficiency was inversely proportional to the operating pressure of hydrogen gas. The maximum ion density and arc current were obtained with constant arc voltage ($80{sim}100V$), as $8{ imes}10^{11}cm^{-3}$ and 1200 A, respectively. The estimated maximum beam current was about 35 A, extracted by the accelerating voltage of 80kV.