Scalable Cloud-Based LEO Satellite Constellation Simulator

Authors: Karim Sobh, Khaled El-Ayat, Fady Morcos, Amr El-Kadi

Abstract:

Distributed applications deployed on LEO satellites and ground stations require substantial communication between different members in a constellation to overcome the earth coverage barriers imposed by GEOs. Applications running on LEO constellations suffer the earth line-of-sight blockage effect. They need adequate lab testing before launching to space. We propose a scalable cloud-based network simulation framework to simulate problems created by the earth line-of-sight blockage. The framework utilized cloud IaaS virtual machines to simulate LEO satellites and ground stations distributed software. A factorial ANOVA statistical analysis is conducted to measure simulator overhead on overall communication performance. The results showed a very low simulator communication overhead. Consequently, the simulation framework is proposed as a candidate for testing LEO constellations with distributed software in the lab before space launch.

Keywords: LEO, Cloud Computing, Constellation, Satellite, Network Simulation, Netfilter.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1107231

References:

[1] Apache Website. http://www.apache.org/, 2013. (Online; accessed 15-August-2013).
[2] C++ SGP4 Satellite Library. http://www.danrw.com/sgp4/, 2013. (Online; accessed 15-August-2013).
[3] Cesium WebGL Virtual Globe and Map Engine. http://cesium.agi.com/, 2013. (Online; accessed 15-August-2013).
[4] MySQL Website. http://www.mysql.com, 2013. (Online; accessed 15-August-2013).
[5] R Language Project for Statistical Computing. http://www.r-project.org/, 2013. (Online; accessed 20-September-2013).
[6] A. Agogino, C. HolmesParker, and K. Tumer. Evolving distributed resource sharing for cubesat constellations. In Proceedings of the fourteenth international conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation conference, GECCO ’12, pages 1015–1022, New York, NY, USA, 2012. ACM.
[7] M. Armbrust, A. Fox, R. Griffith, A. D. Joseph, R. H. Katz, A. Konwinski, G. Lee, D. A. Patterson, A. Rabkin, I. Stoica, and M. Zaharia. Above the clouds: A berkeley view of cloud computing. Technical Report UCB/EECS-2009-28, EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley, Feb 2009.
[8] H. Bedon, C. Negron, J. Llantoy, C. Nieto, and C. Asma. Preliminary internetworking simulation of the qb50 cubesat constellation. In Communications (LATINCOM), 2010 IEEE Latin-American Conference on, pages 1–6, 2010.
[9] J. Canales, G. Rodriguez, J. Estela, and N. Krishnamurthy. Design of a peruvian small satellite network. In Aerospace Conference, 2010 IEEE, pages 1–8, 2010.
[10] O. Challa and J. McNair. Cubesat torrent: Torrent like distributed communications for cubesat satellite clusters. In MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE, 2012 - MILCOM 2012, pages 1–6, 2012.
[11] J. Corbet, A. Rubini, and G. Kroah-Hartman. Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition. O’Reilly Media, Inc., 2005.
[12] D. Hilley and D. Hilley. Cloud computing: A taxonomy of platform and infrastructure-level offerings, April 2009.
[13] C. N. Hoefer and G. Karagiannis. Taxonomy of cloud computing services. In GLOBECOM Workshops (GC Wkshps), 2010 IEEE, pages 1345–1350, 2010.
[14] R. Jain. The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis: techniques for experimental design, measurement, simulation, and modeling. Wiley, 1991.
[15] D. C. Montgomery. Design and Analysis of Experiments. John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
[16] P. Muri and J. McNair. A survey of communication sub-systems for intersatellite linked systems and cubesat missions. Journal of Communications, 7(4), 2012.
[17] J. M. NELSON. Persistent Military Satellite Communications Coverage Using A CubeSat Constellation In Low Earth Orbit. PhD thesis, University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida, 2010.
[18] B. Rimal, E. Choi, and I. Lumb. A taxonomy and survey of cloud computing systems. In INC, IMS and IDC, 2009. NCM ’09. Fifth International Joint Conference on, pages 44–51, 2009.
[19] G. B. Shaw. The generalized information network analysis methodology for distributed satellite systems. Technical report, Doctor of Science Thesis, MIT, 1998.
[20] B. R. Smalarz. Cubesat constellation analysis for data relaying. 2011.
[21] J. E. Underwood. Distributed satellite communication system design: First-order interactions between system and network architectures. Master’s thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 2005.
[22] D. A. Vallado and P. Crawford. Sgp4 orbit determination. In Proceedings of AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference and Exhibit, pages 18–21, 2008.
[23] B. Venkatamohan. Automated implementation of stateful firewalls in linux. 2011.
[24] J. Wertz and W. Larson. Space Mission Analysis and Design. Space Technology Library. Springer Netherlands, 1999.
[25] L. Wood, W. D. Ivancic, W. M. Eddy, D. Stewart, J. Northam, and C. Jackson. Investigating operation of the internet in orbit: Five years of collaboration around cleo. CoRR, abs/1204.3261, 2012.