Roteamento em redes de satélites de uma constelação de baixa órbita com vistas a redução do consumo energético

Abstract

The artificial satellites are an important technological infrastructure for various types of applications. In this context, a satellite constellation consists of a network formed by a set of satellites that communicate with each other using intersatellite links, thus allowing the sending of information from one point of origin on the globe to another point on the surface, regardless of the distance between them. Thus, routing in satellite networks is based on determining the best route to send the packets from source to the destination. In their movements around our planet, the satellites pass through areas without sunlight, due to the projected shadow of the planet, that is, eclipse area. During their stay in these areas, the solar panels of the satellites do not provide energy for the operation of the electronic components of the satellites and their batteries begin a discharge process that, depending on the depth of the discharge, can impact the battery life time. As it is impracticable to replace batteries in orbiting satellites, and considering the high cost involved in the construction and launching of a satellite, it is necessary to develop technologies that allow to improve the energy consumption of satellite communications. In this dissertation, we present a routing metric in low-orbit satellite networks, considering the satellites exposure in the eclipse areas, in order to improve results, related to the increase in data traffic and energy consumption. For this, we developed in MATLAB a software model that allows simulating the orbital dynamics of satellites, data routing between them and energy consumption. To delimit the scope of this work, we adopted the satellites network of the Iridium constellation, composed of 66 satellites in Earth orbit. The proposed metric, Energy and Capacicity Aware Routing metric in LEO Satellite networks (ECARS), consists of combining the data related to the propagation delay, the remaining capacity of the exposed satellites batteries in the eclipse areas and the capacity of the links. The results demonstrate an improvement in the total delivery rate of up 21.67% with approximate values of energy consumption, in relation to the LASER metric, proposed by Hussein, Jakllari e Paillassa (2014).