Session
Technical Session 10: Communications
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
Innoflight’s Secure Space Mesh Networking development and prototyping efforts started at its incorporation over 15 years ago with a vision of establishing end-to-end Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity in and through space. A number of space industry trends have accelerated the demand for space networking: (a) the widespread adoption of enterprise-grade and cloud-based, IP-centric ground system architectures; (b) the accelerated growth of both commercial and government proliferated Low Earth Orbit (pLEO) constellations leveraging small satellites (SmallSats); (c) the maturation, miniaturization and commoditization of high-speed Radio Frequency (RF), Free Space Optical (FSO) Inter-Satellite Links (ISLs), and high-performance flight processors for aforementioned SmallSats; and (d) the need for All-Domain Operations (ADO) seamlessly and autonomously integrating space, airborne, terrestrial, maritime and underwater networks. Furthermore, data encryption, for reasons of either National Security or monetized mission data protection, creates additional challenges to effectively switch/route and encrypt/decrypt ciphertext data across a mesh network. Lastly, with the projection of multiple and multi-national pLEO constellations, it is critical to negotiate link security real-time for dynamic, trusted nodes, and prevent inadvertent or intentional networking with unknown/untrusted nodes.
Innoflight will discuss the aforementioned relevant space industry trends and commercial and government initiatives, including DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Blackjack and Space Development Agency’s (SDA) National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA), and then identify the technical challenges for secure space mesh networking and decompose these challenges with two popular frameworks: (a) the individual layers, especially Layer 2 (data/link layer) and Layer 3 (network layer), within the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model; and (b) the control and data planes within the Software Defined Networking (SDN) model. Innoflight will present its development and prototyping efforts, specific to these challenges, including recent work funded under a 2019 Space Pitch Day award and leveraging its general-purpose processing and networking CFC-400X platform, and conclude by identifying remaining gaps: including technical, commercial and policy; to fully realize interoperable secure space mesh networking..
Secure Space Mesh Networking
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Innoflight’s Secure Space Mesh Networking development and prototyping efforts started at its incorporation over 15 years ago with a vision of establishing end-to-end Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity in and through space. A number of space industry trends have accelerated the demand for space networking: (a) the widespread adoption of enterprise-grade and cloud-based, IP-centric ground system architectures; (b) the accelerated growth of both commercial and government proliferated Low Earth Orbit (pLEO) constellations leveraging small satellites (SmallSats); (c) the maturation, miniaturization and commoditization of high-speed Radio Frequency (RF), Free Space Optical (FSO) Inter-Satellite Links (ISLs), and high-performance flight processors for aforementioned SmallSats; and (d) the need for All-Domain Operations (ADO) seamlessly and autonomously integrating space, airborne, terrestrial, maritime and underwater networks. Furthermore, data encryption, for reasons of either National Security or monetized mission data protection, creates additional challenges to effectively switch/route and encrypt/decrypt ciphertext data across a mesh network. Lastly, with the projection of multiple and multi-national pLEO constellations, it is critical to negotiate link security real-time for dynamic, trusted nodes, and prevent inadvertent or intentional networking with unknown/untrusted nodes.
Innoflight will discuss the aforementioned relevant space industry trends and commercial and government initiatives, including DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Blackjack and Space Development Agency’s (SDA) National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA), and then identify the technical challenges for secure space mesh networking and decompose these challenges with two popular frameworks: (a) the individual layers, especially Layer 2 (data/link layer) and Layer 3 (network layer), within the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model; and (b) the control and data planes within the Software Defined Networking (SDN) model. Innoflight will present its development and prototyping efforts, specific to these challenges, including recent work funded under a 2019 Space Pitch Day award and leveraging its general-purpose processing and networking CFC-400X platform, and conclude by identifying remaining gaps: including technical, commercial and policy; to fully realize interoperable secure space mesh networking..
