Communication and Management Services in Satellite Mega Constellations

Satellite mega-constellations is one of the current hot topics in the space industry. With a network of thousands of small satellites in low earth orbit equipped with sensors or radios, it could create new possibilities of monitoring environmental parameters or even provide high speed internet in the most remote areas of the planet.

However, communication in a satellite network is challenges by links that are episodic and have significant error probability, in contrast with the assumptions of traditional TCP/IP protocols that fails or provide very poor performance.

Through a Danish R&D project funded by the Innovation Fund “Mega-Constellation Service Management” (MegaMan) it has been proposed to use state-of-the-art Operational Support Systems (OSS) used in the telecommunication industry to monitor and manage these satellite networks.The project addresses the communication challenges using Delay and Disruption Tolerant Networking, initially developed by NASA, and over the last decade used on several missions.

In this IDA Connect event the partners in the project 2operate, GomSpace and Aarhus University, will present research and framework for significant improvements in network operations management and monitoring for satellite networks.

The afternoon will start with a keynote from the European Space Agency providing the visions of the European space roadmap. At the end of the project presentations the Danish chapter of ESA Business Incubator will present the initiatives to further support the innovation and start-ups in the Danish space industry.

The program and the presenters will be chaired by Associate Professor Jens Dalsgaard Nielsen from the Department of Electronic Systems at Aalborg University.

After the program it will be possible to stay shortly for networking activities.

12.30 – 13.00

Registration and sandwich

13.00 – 13.10

Welcome at IDA Connect – Michael Brogaard Jensen

13.10 – 13.40

The European Space Roadmap – Roger Walker, ESA

13.40 – 14.00

MegaMan Project Introduction and Motivation – Søren K. Søndergaard, 2operate

14.00 – 14.30

Mega Constellation Use Cases – Rune Hylsberg Jacobsen, Aarhus University

14.30 – 14.50

Pause

14.50 – 15.20

Communication Challenges and Proposed Solutions – Per Henrik Michaelsen, GomSpace

15.20 – 15.40

Entrepreneurship and Space – Christoffer Karaoff, ESA BIC

15.40 – 16.10

Panel Debate and wrap-up

16.10 – 16.30

Networking