On the Network Characterization of Nano-Satellite Swarms

Evelyne Akopyan (1, 2) , Riadh Dhaou (1, 3) , Emmanuel Lochin (4) , Bernard Pontet (5) , Jacques Sombrin (2)

1 IRIT-RMESS - Réseaux, Mobiles, Embarqués, Sans fil, Satellites
2 TéSA - Télécommunications Spatiales et Aéronautiques - Telecommunications for Space ant Aeronautics
3 Toulouse INP - Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse)
4 ENAC - Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile
5 CNES - Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse]

Low-frequency radio interferometry is crucial to understanding the universe and its very early days. Unfortunately, most of the current instruments are ground-based and thus impacted by the interferences massively produced by the Earth. To alleviate this issue, scientific missions aim at using Moonorbiting nano-satellite swarms as distributed radio-telescopes in outer space, keeping them out of Earth interference range. However, swarms of nano-satellites are systems with complex dynamics and need to be appropriately characterized to achieve their scientific mission. This paper presents a methodology based on graph theory for characterizing the swarm network system by computing graph theory metrics around three properties: the node density, network connectivity and ISL availability. We show that these properties are well-suited for highlighting a possible heterogeneity in a network and adapt a routing strategy accordingly. This work is the first milestone in defining the best-suited routing strategy within the swarm from the derived network properties.

Mots clés: Swarm of Nano-Satellites; Network Characterization; Graph Theory

Domaines: Réseaux et télécommunications [cs.NI]

Evelyne Akopyan, Riadh Dhaou, Emmanuel Lochin, Bernard Pontet, Jacques Sombrin. On the Network Characterization of Nano-Satellite Swarms. 28th IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC 2023), IEEE, Jul 2023, Tunis, Tunisia. ⟨hal-04098445⟩