The DSN Scheduling Engine (DSE): Automated Scheduling of Activities for the NASA Deep Space Network
Mark Johnston, Daniel Q. Tran · 2010
Scheduling NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) presents a challenging problem due to its size, dynamic character, and collaborative approach to resolving schedule conicts. This paper describes an ongoing project to automate the DSN scheduling process, and our approach to design and implementation of the DSN Scheduling Engine (DSE) component of the new system. The DSE is responsible for interpreting user requests for communications and other services from the DSN, then generating and checking schedules that achieve those requests. It also identies and resolves conicts in the schedule, as well as activities that fail to meet their requirements. It can repair schedules or generate completely new ones. We describe the overall DSN scheduling domain, some of the associated implementation challenges, and recent progress towards meeting these challenges.