Contact Plan Design for Predictable Disruption‐tolerant Space Sensor Networks
Juan A. Fraire, Pablo G. Madoery, Jorge M. Finochietto · 2017
This chapter discusses the benefits of exploiting space borne wireless sensor networks to enhance the functionality and performance of Earth-observation missions. It provides an overview of the evolution of traditional Internet communications towards disruption-tolerant schemes, and discusses the specific characteristics of these when implemented in space environments. Next, the chapter introduces the problem of resource limitations and the derived need for contact plan design (CPD) and also describes traffic-aware contact plan designs (TACPs) as an appealing CPD scheme for space sensor networks (SSNs). It evaluates and compares the performance of fair contact plan (FCP), route-aware contact plan (RACP) and TACP by applying them to the example sensor network with a single usable port per node. Finally, the chapter presents a case study and is used as a CPD benchmark to inform the discussion of the challenges of implementing efficient planning strategies in operative SSNs systems.