Application-Layer Techniques for Data Communications over Deep Space Networks

The hazardous operative conditions experienced by deep space environments (very large latencies and frequent link disconnections) make the use of TCP-based transmission schemes inefficient. On the contrary, the use of erasure coding schemes and more appropriate automatic repeat request (ARQ) schemes, available within the packet layer coding-based and the consultative committee for space data systems (CCSDS) protocol architectures respectively, assure better performance results. In this paper, the adoption of erasure codes within CCSDS protocol stack is considered and its effectiveness is evaluated with respect to ARQ-based transmission schemes available within the CCSDS file delivery protocol