Hybrid DTN QoS Control System

NASA STTR Phase 1 Solicitation Topic T5.07 Communications Quality of Service (QoS) Optimization Through Network Autonomy specifies “Quality of Service Policy Management” as scope, and network service management as “key technology focused on enabling the future interplanetary internet” to “enable increase science data return, providing high-quality multimedia capabilities essential for human space exploration, and serve as trunk lines connecting Earth to the Moon”. It establishes that “NASA Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) program is focused on infusing DTN into space networks and science missions”. To accomplish this, “network management capabilities are required to administer and configure DTN nodes and must operate within and complement existing spacecraft scheduling and management systems.” Our innovation, the SPATIAM Hybrid DTN QoS Control System, is focused on addressing a significant gap in the state of the art, the operationalization of application of quality of service on DTN networks, supporting missions to the Moon, and beyond. The system delivers a standards-based QoS architecture targeting interplanetary networking, inclusive of Lunar and Martian missions, with Hybrid Delay Tolerant QoS management algorithms leveraging autonomy. This system constitutes a complete operational system, ready for deployment and use in upcoming missions, meeting a key objective of the STTR solicitation, the delivery and enforcement of network policy management for QoS, including applications for automated configuration management, monitoring and analyzing network performance. The main objective of this STTR Phase 1 is to progress the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the SPATIAM Hybrid QoS Control System, from TRL 2 to TRL 3 through the delivery of a System Requirements specification, the design and results analysis of the Hybrid DTN QoS Control System algorithms and methods, a System Architecture and Design specification, and a Phase 2 prototype development plan.