Principal Investigator Eytan Modiano
While the field of communications and networks is rapidly advancing due to the increased popularity of the Internet, space communication systems are at a much more immature state of development. Certain attributes of the satellite channels make techniques previously developed for terrestrial networks inefficient or entirely unsuitable. For example, satellite systems often have longer propagation delays and higher bit error rates than their terrestrial counterparts; and the open air interface for satellite channels lends itself to the concept of dynamic sharing of resources. This gives rise to a range of problems including: Resource allocation (such as power and bandwidth), media access control, system management, dynamic routing in the presence of changing topologies and fluctuating loads, and interconnection with terrestrial and wireless networks.
Of particular interest is the design of architectures and protocols for heterogeneous networks that include both space and terrestrial segments, which gives rise to a range of issues including: Space/ground network architectures, the design of efficient end-to-end protocols, quality of service assurance and the design of efficient interfaces between the ground and space portions of the network.