Internet of Satellites (IoSat): an interconnected space paradigm

Abstract

During the last years the space has been populated by Distributed Satellite Systems, which some of them have started to implement Inter-Satellite Communication. However, current solutions are composed of a unique mission and homogeneous spacecrafts or a combination of them. This actually limits their use in the so-called “Federated Satellite Systems” that proposes the interconnection of heterogeneous spacecrafts in order to establish a mission collaboration whenever the resources are not used for the primary mission goal. This point-to-point proposal has some limitations that can be addressed in a multi-hop platform, i.e. a network. Current satellite network proposals, such as Space Internet or Heterogeneous Spacecraft Network, propose the creation of a common network backbone which provides connectivity for future missions. However, this approach supposes huge maintenance and deployment costs. This work presents a new interconnected space paradigm based on a more peer-to-peer architecture: Internet of Satellites. This new paradigm promotes the creation of sporadic networks, called Inter Satellite Networks, which provide the required communication means to deploy Federated Satellite Systems for multi-hop cases.