Design challenges in contact plans for disruption-tolerant satellite networks

TLDR

Space communications technology has progressed slowly compared to terrestrial Internet, prompting the IETF DTN working group to extend Internet principles to disruptive space links, yet significant challenges remain before orbital DTNs can be deployed. The study examines the current state of contact design, planning, and implementation, highlighting the growing complexity of incorporating routing and traffic data and the consequent need for a dedicated contact plan computation component. Authors review and compare various modeling techniques, system constraints, selection criteria, and methods used to generate contact plans for space DTNs. They conclude that integrating routing and traffic information increases planning complexity, necessitating a contact plan computation element to support space DTN operation.

Abstract

During the past 20 years, space communications technologies have shown limited progress in comparison to Internet-based networks on Earth. However, a brand new working group of the IETF with focus on DTN promises to extend today's Internet boundaries to embrace disruptive communications such as those seen in space networks. Nevertheless, several challenges need to be overcome before operative DTNs can be deployed in orbit. We analyze the state of the art of effective design, planning, and implementation of the forthcoming network communications opportunities (contacts). To this end, different modeling techniques, system constraints, selection criteria, and methods are reviewed and compared. Finally, we discuss the increasing complexity of considering routing and traffic information to enrich the planning procedure, yielding the need to implement a contact plan computation element to support space DTN operation.