Using standard Internet Protocols and applications in space

Using Internet nodes and routers onboard satellites

“…6 In 2000, a TCP/IP stack was uploaded to SSTL's UoSAT-12 satellite, and experiments were run by NASA Goddard in collaboration with SSTL as part of the OMNI (Operating Missions as Nodes on the Internet) project. 3,7 Correspondence to Lloyd Wood (lwood@cisco.com) SSTL used experience gained from the OMNI work by migrating from AX.25 towards IP and adopting IP for operation of their Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) satellites, launched from Plesetsk in Siberia. AlSAT-1, the first of these satellites, was launched in November 2002.…”

“…This protocol encapsulation is an engineering choice made as a result of experience gained previously testing IP use with SSTL's UoSAT-12 satellite and an earlier Cisco router in the Surrey ground station. 3 Without that previous work, done in cooperation with NASA Goddard's OMNI project, to lay down use of commercial networking standards by SSTL's satellite and ground station network, integration of a commercial router into the satellite would have been far more difficult.…”

“…The later Chinese Beijing-1 satellite is IP-only, as is its OBC, and also has an X-band downlink to support an extra high-resolution camera. This downlink carries HDLC framing at either 20 or 40 Mbps to a High Speed Serial Interface (HSSI) on a Cisco 7204VXR router in the ground station, following Hogie et al 3 SSTL has moved the UK-DMC OBC back to AX.25 while debugging its internal software, which removed a source of UDPbased telemetry during passes.…”

“…It may be useful to also carry AX.25 frames within Frame Relay, to permit different types of traffic to be clearly identified separately by Frame Relay as outlined by Hogie et al, 3 so that they can coexist within the same shared infrastructure.…”

“…2 The Cisco router was easily integrated into the UK-DMC satellite due to previous engineering work that had already adopted the Internet Protocol, IP, for communication between onboard IP network stacks and a ground station network that relies on a Cisco router with commercial serial interfaces. 3 …”