Space and Satellite Networking

Space and Satellite Networking

Overview

Context: Unlike traditional mobile networks, space and satellite networks (SSNs) are challenged by high delay due to signal propagation, and disruptions due to planet rotation and resource limitations.

Challenge: Internet-like data handling is not always a good fit for SSNs. Instead, novel networking architectures paradigms are being proposed to leverage accurate planning based on available information of the connectivity and resources (proactive vision) but also to dynamically learn and distribute the intelligence to survive faults and unexpected events (reactive vision). Taking the best out of very expensive and complex space systems sits at the crossroads of these visions.

Methods: In this seminar we explore an extensive variety of applied state-of-the-art models, algorithms and artificial intelligence approaches enabling the realization of future SSN including mega-constellations and deep-space missions. The objective is to practice and to refine the skills of scientific presentation, and scientific argumentation. We are looking for critical/creative thinking on the applicability of the approaches.

Setup

A weekly time slot will be defined, which might be used on an on-demand basis for meetings held remotely via Zoom. The precise weekly time slot will be fixed once the participants' constraints are known.

Structure

• Calibration (November 19th @2pm) [10% of the final grade]: You will present an 8 minutes talk on one of these topics: a) Delay-Tolerant Networks (DTNs) applied to space networking, or b) TCP/IP applied to space networking.
• Reading phase (November/December): You will read/study your assigned paper from the Topics section.
• Presentation contents (Up to December 24th) [10% of the final grade, compulsory]: You will have sent over a draft story line of your presentation, to be discussed with the instructor.
• Preparation phase (December/January): You will prepare your assigned Topic based on the presented contents. 
• Presentation slides (Up to January 21st) [20% of the final grade, compulsory]: You will have sent over a draft slide of your presentation, to be discussed with the instructor.
• Presentation (February 11th, 23rd, 25th @2pm) [40% of the final grade, compulsory]: You will present a 35 minutes talk with your story and explain it properly.
• Active participation (During presentations) [20% of the final grade]: You will provide feedback to the presentations of your colleagues and participate in the discussions.

Topics

The list of the topics we will revise is constructed as follows.

1. General routing in SSNs: Jain, Sushant, Kevin Fall, and Rabin Patra. "Routing in a delay tolerant network." Proceedings of the 2004 conference on Applications, technologies, architectures, and protocols for computer communications. 2004.
2. Capacity-oriented routing in SSNs: Alonso, Juan, and Kevin Fall. A linear programming formulation of flows over time with piecewise constant capacity and transit times. Intel Research Technical Report IRB-TR-03-007, 2003.
3. Resource-oriented planning in SSNs: Zhou, Di, et al. "Mission aware contact plan design in resource-limited small satellite networks." IEEE Transactions on Communications 65.6 (2017): 2451-2466.
4. Survivability in SSNs: Liang, Qingkai, and Eytan Modiano. "Survivability in time-varying networks." IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing 16.9 (2016): 2668-2681.
5. General software-defined SSNs: Li, Taixin, et al. "SERvICE: A software defined framework for integrated space-terrestrial satellite communication." IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing 17.3 (2017): 703-716.
6. QoS-oriented software-defined SSNs: Wu, Shuai, et al. "Intelligent Quality of Service Routing in Software-Defined Satellite Networking." IEEE Access 7 (2019): 155281-155298.
7. Learning contacts in SSNs: Ruiz-de-Azua, Joan A., et al. "Assessment of Satellite Contacts using Predictive Algorithms for Autonomous Satellite Networks." IEEE Access (2020).
8. Learning routes in SSNs: Lent, Ricardo. "Routing in a Delay Tolerant Network with Spiking Neurons." ICC 2019-2019 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) (2019).