Georgia Tech Research Corporation

Ahan Kak

Ian F Akyildiz

Shuai Nie

In a method for routing communications through a constellation () of a plurality of CubeSats orbiting a planet and responsive to a ground controller, the ground controller determines optimal tunnels () that include inter-satellite links () between CubeSats by: generating virtual nodes (); generating the sub-satellite points () to correspond to points on a path through each virtual node that CubeSats follow; calculating an inter-satellite link from a sub-satellite point another sub-satellite point during a period from a time of initialization when the first sub-satellite point is at an entry point of the first virtual node until the first sub-satellite point is at an exit point; and generating an information packet describing the optimal tunnel () including inter-satellite links () that interconnect the sub-satellite points (). The information packet transmitted from the ground controller to one of the CubeSats and is forwarded from one of the CubeSats to remaining CubeSats.

Low-overhead online routing scheme for ultra-dense software-defined CubeSat networks

A space-based communications network () includes at least one central ground station () having a transceiver that is configured to communicate with satellites, such as cube satellites (). The cube satellites () form an ad hoc network of orbital cube satellites, in which each of the cube satellites () communicate with each other. One of the cube satellites communicates with the ground station (). A ground-based control system () communicates with the central ground station (). The control system () continuously determines a configuration of the ad hoc network () and communicates network control information for the cube satellites () to maintain communications in the ad hoc network (). The cube satellites () disseminate the network control to each other via the ad hoc network ().

Network employing cube satellites

A computational framework for designing a constellation that includes a plurality of cube satellites (CubeSats) includes an orbit propagation module, a coverage estimation module, a connectivity estimation module and an annealing module. The orbit propagation module receives a plurality of static parameters for the constellation and determines a position vector, a ground track and sub-satellite points for each of the plurality of CubeSats. The coverage estimation module receives the plurality of static parameters for the constellation and estimates Earth coverage for the constellation. The connectivity estimation module receives the plurality of static parameters for the constellation and determines active inter-satellite links (ISL) in the constellation. The annealing module receives input from the orbit propagation module, the coverage estimation module and the connectivity module and employs an annealing algorithm that generates a constellation design.

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Atlanta, GA, United States of America

Ahan Kak