Satellite ground station virtualization: Secure sharing of ground stations using software defined networking

This paper describes the idea of a virtualized satellite ground station and its potential applications. A virtual satellite ground station in this context is a system that transparently exposes the operation and data path of a real ground station to an external operating entity for a defined amount of time. Principal benefits and challenges are discussed and virtualization layering options are traded off against each other. A virtualization architecture is proposed which features software defined networking (SDN) as key element. A short case study complements the paper to highlight the benefits.