A link-state routing approach for formation flying spacecraft

With a new generation of space exploration missions, a system of autonomous formation flying has been envisioned. It is based on the idea of having several collaborating spacecraft fly together in some formation and collectively perform a distributed set of tasks. This requires that the spacecraft function and interact with one another more or less autonomously with minimal human intervention. One of the many challenges facing this new idea is the communication among spacecraft within the same cluster, i.e. a set of spacecraft flying together in some specific formation, as well as with those of other related clusters. In this paper, this particular problem is addressed by proposing a routing framework that allows spacecraft to share information about their ability to communicate with one another. Such information, which can be considered as decision parameters or so-called cost metrics, includes data rate, propagation delay, reception signal strength, and bit error rate (BER). The participating spacecraft use this information to build and maintain connection topology and routing tables for efficient communication both within a cluster and between clusters