An Architect of a Layer 2 Contact Plane for Concurrent Dual Mode of Satellite Constellation Networking

The main challenge in satellite constellation networking is the process burden on the satellites as network nodes and Host terminals, where each satellite performs both forwarding traffic task, and downloading its data. The paper introduces the multi-Processor system on chip (MPSoc) FPGA envisioned technologies to perform satellite networking tasks, and presents a proposed model of a Layer 2 Contact Plane (CP) in charge of traffic management. The design of a satellite CP refers to IEEE 802.11 technology in terms of configurations and protocols. It is successfully implemented in a framework of a project aims a development of satellite constellation network subsystem using the development kit ULTRA96-v2. Keywords- Satellite constellation, MPSoc, DTN, ISL, contact plane, contact plan, networking