Bundle Protocol (BP) over Licklider Transmission Protocol (LTP) for Cislunar Communications

Abstract

With demands increasing in lunar and Mars explorations, the need for a new space communication standard protocol is becoming more and more critical. The DTN Research Group (DTNRG) is developing a series of communication protocols with new architecture, generally called DTN protocols, to tolerate highly stressed communication environments with long propagation delays and frequent link disruptions. In this paper, we present an experimental investigation of the bundle protocol (BP), over Licklider transmission protocol (LTP - sometimes called the long-haul transmission protocol), operating with unreliable User Datagram Protocol (UDP), over an emulated cislunar networking under various channel conditions. Our intention is to investigate the transmission performance of the BP/LTP protocol, running on top of an unreliable UDP stack, over a cislunar link with long propagation delays, frequent disconnects, and a high bit error rate (BER). A comparison between BP/LTP/UDP and another DTN protocol suite is also presented.