A Roadmap Toward a Unified Space Communication Architecture

In recent years, the number of space exploration missions has multiplied. Such an increase raises the question of effective communication between the multitude of human-made objects spread across our solar system. An efficient and scalable communication architecture presents multiple challenges, including the distance between planetary entities, their motion and potential obstruction, the limited available payload on satellites, and the high mission cost. This paper brings together recent relevant specifications, standards, mission demonstrations, and the most recent proposals to develop a unified architecture for deep-space internetworked communication. After characterizing the transmission medium and its unique challenges, we explore the available communication technologies and frameworks to establish a reliable communication architecture across the solar system. We then draw an evolutive roadmap for establishing a scalable communication architecture. This roadmap builds upon the mission-centric communication architectures in the upcoming years towards a fully interconnected network or InterPlanetary Internet (IPN). We finally discuss the tools available to develop such an architecture in the short, medium, and long terms. The resulting architecture cross-supports space agencies on the solar system-scale while significantly decreasing space communication costs. Through this analysis, we derive the critical research questions remaining for creating the IPN regarding the considerable challenges of space communication.Peer reviewe

A novel dissemination protocol to deploy opportunistic services in federated satellite systems

The Earth Observation community is demanding new satellite applications that cover the need of monitoring different areas with high spatial resolution and short revisit times. These applications will generate huge amounts of data, and thus improvements in the downlink capacity are mandatory. Distributed Satellite Systems have emerged as a moderate-risk and cost-effective solution to meet these new requirements. These systems are groups of satellites that share a global and common objective. One of these systems are the Federated Satellite Systems, which rely on the collaboration between satellites that share unused resources, such as memory storage, computing capabilities, or downlink opportunities. In the same context, the Internet of Satellites paradigm expands the FSS concept to a multi-hop scenario, without predefining a satellite system architecture, and deploying temporal satellite networks. The basis of both concepts is the offer of unused satellite resources as services, being necessary that satellites notify their availability to other satellites that composes the system. This work presents the Opportunistic Service Avaliability Dissemination Protocol, which allows a satellite to publish an available service to be consumed by others. Details of the protocol behavior, and packet formats are presented as part of the protocol definition. Additionally, without loss of generality, the protocol has been verified in a realistic scenario composed of Earth Observation satellites, and the Telesat mega-constellation as a network backbone. The achieved results demonstrate the benefits of using the proposed protocol by doubling the downloaded data in some cases.This work was supported in part by the ’’CommSensLab’’ Excellence Research Unit Maria de Maeztu Ministerio de asuntos Económicos y transformación digital (MINECO) under Grant MDM-2016-0600; in part by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) and European Union - European Regional Development Fund (EU ERDF) project ’’Sensing with pioneering opportunistic techniques‘‘ under Grant RTI2018-099008-B-C21; in part by the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR)—Generalitat de Catalunya (FEDER) under Grant FI-DGR 2015; and in part by the Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya under Grant 2017 SGR 376 and Grant 2017 SGR 219.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Modelos, Algoritmos y Protocolos para Redes de Comunicaciones Tolerantes a Interrupciones con Alto Grado de Predecibilidad

Tesis (DCI)--FCEFN-UNC, 2019La industria de las comunicaciones satelitales ha mostrado un avance limitado en las últimas décadas en comparación con la evolución de las redes terrestres tales como Internet. La razón principal consiste en que el entorno espacial es radicalmente diferente al terrestre, lo cual impacta considerablemente en la estabilidad de las conexiones y en el hecho de que los protocolos de comunicación utilizados en Tierra resulten inadecuados y/o ineficientes cuando se tratan de adaptar al espacio. Sin embargo, recientemente, y producto de un esfuerzo conjunto de diferentes agencias espaciales (NASA, ESA, CONAE, etc), se ha comenzado a estudiar y experimentar con estrategias de comunicaciones en red que son capaces de tolerar retardos e interrupciones mediante un cambio paradigmático en la forma de realizar dichas comunicaciones. En particular, se ha propuesto una arquitectura de protocolos llamada Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN), y que dada la predecibilidad de las trayectorias satelitales, permite aprovechar un plande contactos compuesto por las oportunidades de comunicación en el futuro, lo que permite a los satélites tomar decisiones eficientes sobre cómo y cuándo transmitir el tráfico generado o recibido desde otros satélites. En los últimos años, se han llevado a cabo numerosos avances en la implementación de DTN y se han realizado experimentos en órbita que avalan el potencial beneficio de esta arquitectura. Además, se ha estudiado el problema del diseño del plan de contactos que constituye el proceso de configurar y elegir apropiadamente las oportunidades de comunicación con el objetivo de optimizar el rendimiento y realizar una adecuada gestión de los limitados recursos que se disponen en este tipo de redes. Sin embargo, esta arquitectura se encuentra aún en una etapa de maduración y son numerosos los desafíos que deben ser superados. En particular, en esta tesis se pone el foco en el problema de la congestión que ocurre cuando la planificación referida a la utilización de los recursos no resulta apropiada. Básicamente, se proponen mecanismos que actúan, por un lado, sobre el algoritmo de enrutamiento ejecutado de manera distribuida por los satélites de la red, y por otro, sobre el diseño automático del plan de contactos. Adicionalmente, se realizan aportes referidos a los problemas de incertidumbre y de escalabilidad e integración de la red. De esta manera, en esta investigación contribuimos con enfoques originales en los que se aprovecha la predictibilidad de las comunicaciones satelitales para proveer mecanismos de gestión y toma de decisiones de manera automatizada, solucionando de esta forma problemas cuya complejidad aumenta drásticamente con la cantidad de satélites y tiempos de evaluación. Cabe destacar además, que si bien los aportes realizados pueden ser utilizados de forma general en la arquitectura DTN, los mismos encuentran aplicación dentro del Plan Espacial Argentino, ya que esta arquitectura resulta particularmente adecuada para ser aplicada en las nuevas misiones satelitales distribuidas que propone CONAE para la observación terrestre. Por lo tanto, los aportes brindados en esta tesis tienen alcance hacia protocolos desarrollados mediante colaboraciones internacionales y podrían además ser utilizados en nuestro país para resolver desafíos de interés local

DTN routing optimised by human routines: the HURRy protocol

This paper proposes the HURRy (HUman Routines used for Routing) protocol, which infers and benefits from the social behaviour of nodes in disruptive networking environments. HURRy incorporates the contact duration to the information retrieved from historical encounters among neighbours, so that smarter routing decisions can be made. The specification of HURRy is based on the outcomes of a thorough experiment, which highlighted the importance of distinguishing between short and long contacts and deriving mathematical relations in order to optimally prioritize the available routes to a destination. HURRy introduces a novel and more meaningful rating system to evaluate the quality of each contact and overcome the limitations of other routing approaches in social environments.European Commission, Horizon 2020, Grant Agreement number 645124, UMOBIL

NASA space station automation: AI-based technology review

Research and Development projects in automation for the Space Station are discussed. Artificial Intelligence (AI) based automation technologies are planned to enhance crew safety through reduced need for EVA, increase crew productivity through the reduction of routine operations, increase space station autonomy, and augment space station capability through the use of teleoperation and robotics. AI technology will also be developed for the servicing of satellites at the Space Station, system monitoring and diagnosis, space manufacturing, and the assembly of large space structures

Workshop proceedings: Information Systems for Space Astrophysics in the 21st Century, volume 1

The Astrophysical Information Systems Workshop was one of the three Integrated Technology Planning workshops. Its objectives were to develop an understanding of future mission requirements for information systems, the potential role of technology in meeting these requirements, and the areas in which NASA investment might have the greatest impact. Workshop participants were briefed on the astrophysical mission set with an emphasis on those missions that drive information systems technology, the existing NASA space-science operations infrastructure, and the ongoing and planned NASA information systems technology programs. Program plans and recommendations were prepared in five technical areas: Mission Planning and Operations; Space-Borne Data Processing; Space-to-Earth Communications; Science Data Systems; and Data Analysis, Integration, and Visualization

From MANET to people-centric networking: Milestones and open research challenges

In this paper, we discuss the state of the art of (mobile) multi-hop ad hoc networking with the aim to present the current status of the research activities and identify the consolidated research areas, with limited research opportunities, and the hot and emerging research areas for which further research is required. We start by briefly discussing the MANET paradigm, and why the research on MANET protocols is now a cold research topic. Then we analyze the active research areas. Specifically, after discussing the wireless-network technologies, we analyze four successful ad hoc networking paradigms, mesh networks, opportunistic networks, vehicular networks, and sensor networks that emerged from the MANET world. We also present an emerging research direction in the multi-hop ad hoc networking field: people centric networking, triggered by the increasing penetration of the smartphones in everyday life, which is generating a people-centric revolution in computing and communications