A Reconfigurable Context-Aware Protocol Stack for Interplanetary Communication

Abstract

This paper presents an approach to improve protocol stack aims to use such information in advance to transmission success in delay-tolerant networks. The Contextremove the need for human understanding of contextual Aware Broker (CAB) grants networking autonomy when information, and to automate the process when communicating communicating in challenging environments, which suffer from in extreme environments. conditions which are variable and exceed the limits for which Context-aware configuration of the protocol stack is terrestrial protocols were designed. Such environments currently important where real-time decisions must be made. Our require human intervention and the manual configuration of research involves an anticipated deep space scenario; here, we each communicationa seemingly simple decision of when to envisage network congestion, more than one communication transmit becomes an issue in deep space due to planet movement. .' However, manual configuration is becoming unrealistic, given the route,d a human presenc aineeper sac M da flows ,ust scale on which communications occur. CAB automates the couple with l itedntwor arcitu diadesireeto JUSt process by making intelligent decisions before transmission push out a signal without prior planning dictates a need for begins, and reconfigures as it progresses. It recognises the real-time decision-making. dynamic environments through which a transmission may pass II. CURRENT USE OF CONTEXT-AWARENESS IN and matches protocol capabilities with environmental DTN constraints. There are several autonomic missions currently under Index Terms-Context-awareness, Autonomy, Delay-Tolerant development [ 3 ], and NASA's Autonomic Computing Networking (DTN), Interplanetary backbone, Quality of Service initiative will officially be launched between 2020 and 2030 (QoS) [4]. These missions typically use a number of individual I. INTRODUCTION components which communicate with each other, and reconfigure using real-time information. Due to the number of Autonomy empowers the network to be fully responsible components and decisions, their location, and the need for for communication decisions, thus removing the need for immediate reaction to unexpected events and real-time human intelligence and intervention. This istbecoming configuration, human control of the mission is not an option. increasingly important to allow boundaries restricting Context-awareness which enables autonomic decision-making networking efforts in the 21St Century to be overcome. The is therefore empowering a new type of independent mission. most extreme environment is deep space, where long and In addition to the development of autonomic missions at

Interplanetary Networks: Architectural Analysis, Technical Challenges and Solutions Overview

“…In order to smooth the effect of the intrinsic heterogeneity of the IPN network, adaptive mechanisms [10], based on the cross-layer principle [1], are needed. It means that appropriate solutions are necessary to harmonize each single layer solution and jointly optimize the capabilities of IPN Node layers.…”

Context-aware policy-based framework for self-management in delay-tolerant networks: A case study for deep space exploration

“…An autonomic network management function, the CAB [6], has been developed by the authors to support communication in DTNs (Fig. 2) and is not part of the state of the art.…”

GPSDTN: Predictive Velocity-Enabled Delay-Tolerant Networks for Arctic Research and Sustainability

“…GPSDTN will use a context-aware (CA) service-oriented architecture (SOA) [24] that can be used to maximize the efficiency of DTNs. The continual evaluation of application and environmental information in a real-time hop-by-hop manner will integrate flexibility into the protocol stack, necessary to adapt to the environmental dynamics.…”