A Delay Tolerant Networking-Based Approach to a High Data Rate Architecture for Spacecraft

Abstract

Historically, it has been the case that SWaP placed such severe constraints on radios that the links between spacecraft and the ground were relatively slow. This meant that the radio link was normally a significant bottleneck in returning scientific data. Over recent years, however, a combination of more efficient radio design, intelligent waveforms, and highly directed, high-frequency RF / optical systems have led to a rapid increase in the amount of data that can be pushed through radio and optical links. This has led to some cases where the radio links are capable of moving data much more quickly than the spacecraft and instruments are capable of actually generating it! In some instances, scientific data can therefore be lost not because the downlink is too slow to support the data rate, but instead because the spacecraft was not designed in a way that would let it fully utilize both the radio and the networking services available to it.

Tropical Geometric Route Decision-Making in Simulated Lunar Gateway Communications

“…Application of the Joswig algorithm, algorithm 1, yields the trees and systems of inequalities shown in Figure 6. Further, suppose a priori that the parameters x and y are known to follow the curve 5 given implicitly by and parametrically by…”

“…Further background on delay tolerant networking is given in [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]. An alternative routing method for space networks is Contact Graph Routing (CGR) which is described in [7].…”