Long-Range Space Data Communication Autonomous Distributed Scheduling

To realize NASA’s ambition of a solar system wide Internet (starting with the Earth-Moon system’s LunaNet) will require optimized communications through limited data bandwidth communication. Our project, DREAMS, focuses on two aspects of optimal communications: routing and link optimization. Routing is the ability, given that links are already optimized and known (to the extent possible), to optimally schedule storage and transmission of data to maximize throughput, i.e., routing chains bundle transmissions together separated by periods of bundle storage. Link optimization is the ability to optimize a link by tuning modulation scheme, transmit power, symbol rate, etc., where optimality is determined by a weighted sum of metrics including Bit Error Rate (BER), throughput, and power consumption. The DREAMS system consists of three primary components: 1) a ML-based RF link optimizer which optimizes each RF link and apprises distributed schedulers of what data bandwidth each link can support; 2) a packet predictor which predicts and apprises distributed schedulers of the volume of future packets expected from specific applications from the daily activity schedule and the expected volume of packets not tied to the schedule; and 3) distributed schedulers, which exchange network status and schedule information with one another to continuously update and re-optimize the transmission and storage schedule.