Title of Presentation: Delay/Disruption Tolerant Network Testing Using a LEO Satellite

Primary (Corresponding) Author: William Ivancic

Organization of Primary Author: Glenn Research Center

Co-Authors:

Abstract: This paper will describe Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocol testing using the United Kingdom Disaster Monitoring Satellite. The test configurations, test goals and results will all be covered. The DTN protocol has been selected as the protocol of choice to alleviate rate mismatch problems between the high-rate space-to-ground and lower-rate ground-to-ground links. The rate mismatch problem will be described as background to why DTN is a good technology for our Space-based sensor web application and responsive space initiatives (the ability to task in near real-time space-based assets).

The goals for Initial DTN Testing using the UK-DMC were:
1) Demonstrate DTN Bundle Transfer from UK-DMC to SSTL Ground Station
2) Demonstrate that DTN code and general SSTL code can coexist without effecting normal SSTL Operations

The System Configuration was such that the UK-DMC acquired an 150 Mbyte image and that the DTN bundling code default was set to 80 Mbytes for proactive fragmentation to enable all testing to be completed in a single pass.

The tests included:
1) Basic file download using existing technique (Saratoga)
2) Same file downloaded but treated as single bundle (DTN)
3) Same file download but using DTN proactive fragmentation with 80 Mbytes preconfigured fragments.