DTN-Based Nanosatellite Architecture and Hot Spot Selection Algorithm for Remote Areas Connection

Abstract

To extend the network coverage to rural and remote areas, there are different solutions with their advantages and disadvantages. We propose to use a nanosatellite network and to exploit the ability to cope with large delays and disruptions provided by the delay- and disruption-tolerant networking (DTN) paradigm. The connection from remote areas is managed through ground stations called cold spots that collect data from rural nodes and address them to the nanosatellites. Nanosatellites carry and download data to hot spots that address them to the Internet destinations. On the reverse direction, Internet data are addressed to hot spots, uploaded on nanosatellites and delivered to the rural destinations through cold spots. The problem of choosing the “optimal’’ hot spot to address data from the Internet source is important because a wrong choice could lead to large delivery delays. In this paper, we propose “gRANteD’’: a Nanosatellite-DTN Network for rural and remote areas. gRANteD includes “HotSel,’’ a hot spot selection algorithm to minimize the delivery time of all data destined to rural users. The performance evaluation is carried out through a DTN module which implements gRANteD and HotSel, within the framework of Network Simulator 3.