Overlay Network Infrastructure for Remote Control of Radio Astronomy Observatory

Joint scientific experiments are the main way of international cooperation in the field of science. One of the ways to organize joint research is providing remote groups of scientists with remote access to scientific tools. The article encompasses applied aspects of developing new solutions for creating virtual computer networks to support scientific experiments in the field of radio astronomy. The research novelty lies in application of a method for constructing an overlay network infrastructure based on chains of VPN tunnels in order to solve the problem of delegating real IP addresses to computer networks of observatories, or traffic routing schemes when using internal VPN servers with a single real IP address. The work focuses on the aim of developing an applied solution for organizing an overlay computer network and studying the applicability of this solution in various communication networks. As a result of the work, there have been obtained the following: an applied solution to the problem based on the use of multiple VPN tunnels as well as a method for organizing overlay network infrastructure have been developed. In addition, there have been presented examples of operating overlay network infrastructures based on the proposed method, including those for the tasks of organizing access to the radio telescope control modules using the USB interface according to the “USB over Ethernet” scheme. Application of this solution allows constructing a virtual communication infrastructure for remote control of Ukrainian radio telescopes, which, in turn, will allow integrating into the international space observation network.