Ad Hoc Routing for Nanosatellite Constellation Communications

This proposal suggests an approach to providing self-organizing network communications between the nodes comprising a nanosatellite constellation. Using the proposing firm's existing body of work on self-organizing ad hoc networks for 802.11 wireless LANsand miniaturized robotics platforms as a baseline, issues relating to ad hoc networking in a nanosatellite constellations will be identified, a candidate communication architecture will be developed, and OPNET models of a modified ad hoc routing protocolwill be developed. The simulation results will be used to assess the feasibility of the approach.By applying the lessons learned from terrestrial ad hoc networks to a spaceborne environment, and by using existing routing algorithms as a baseline, a flexible communications infrastructure that enables the deployment of cooperative software on thevarious nodes of a nanosatellite constellation can be developed in a relatively short period of time. The commercial application of this research is a routing algorithm that can be licensed to nanosatellite communication-hardware vendors.