An Implementation of Centralized Controllers for Software-Defined Satellite Networks

With the increasing user demands for higher quality multimedia services, the satellite networks play a vital role in communication networks due to global seamless coverage. However, the time-variant topologies of satellite networks bring great challenges to network management and routing algorithms. This paper aims at applying the software defined networking (SDN) to satellite networks to improve routing calculation efficiency and simplify satellite payloads. Firstly, we obtain the satellite network topologies from a satellite simulation tool and build the satellite network system based on the Iridium constellation. Moreover, the dynamic satellite network topology is divided into multiple static network topologies by dividing time slices. Finally, to get the optimal path, we develop the routing algorithm using the improved Dijkstra algorithm to dynamically establish an end-to-end communication path under the TCP connections, so that the communication between satellites can be achieved.