An Integrated Approach to Enable Space Networking

In this proposal, IAI and its supporting company, Boeing Phantom Works, propose an innovative integrated approach to enable Internet in space. The key innovations of this solution include: 1) introducing region concept into the IPv6 address, so space entities can take different communication strategies based on how far away the other end is. The IPV6 addressing scheme also guarantees that space communications based on it will have seamless connectivity with GIG; 2) a robust and configurable network service protocol suite for space network; 3) for communications within the same region, a suite of improved transport protocols are used for reliable communication in space network; 4) for communications crossing multiple space regions, selected Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) technologies are used for data transmission with extremely long distance. BENEFIT: As a whole, the proposed networking framework and various optimization mechanisms provide a solid solution that can render a flexible Internet-style space networking. We expect to produce a comprehensive software and protocol suite for military as well as researchers in space networking community to investigate complex networking problems and challenges. As more and more military and civilian applications are relying on satellites and other space platforms, the proposed space networking solutions will greatly improve the communication performance of such applications. Potential benefited applications include battlefield management system, reconnaissance and surveillance, homeland security, GPS applications, satellite radio and television, planet exploration, and other military or research space missions. The market for military and civilian applications is quite large.