A Reconfigurable Context-Aware Protocol Stack for Interplanetary Communication

Abstract

This paper presents an approach to improve transmission success in delay-tolerant networks. The context- aware broker (CAB) grants networking autonomy when communicating in challenging environments, which suffer from conditions which are variable and exceed the limits for which terrestrial protocols were designed. Such environments currently require human intervention and the manual configuration of each communication - a seemingly simple decision of when to transmit becomes an issue in deep space due to planet movement. However, manual configuration is becoming unrealistic, given the scale on which communications occur. CAB automates the process by making intelligent decisions before transmission begins, and reconfigures as it progresses. It recognises the dynamic environments through which a transmission may pass and matches protocol capabilities with environmental constraints.