Integration of Reed-Solomon codes to licklider transmission protocol (LTP) for space DTN

Extensive work has been done in developing networking architectures and protocols for satellite/space communications and interplanetary networks. A variety of solutions have been proposed [1-9]. Numerous literature surveys [10-14] have also been conducted on these technologies. Delay/disruption tolerant networking (DTN) [1] architecture was proposed to enable automated network communications despite the long link delay and frequent link disruptions that generally characterize deepspace communications. DTN is presently recognized as the only candidate protocol that approaches the level of maturity required to handle the inevitable long link delay, frequent and lengthy link disconnections, and heavy data loss inherent in space communications [15].