Structural Considerations for Generating and Handling LTP Report Segments from an Interoperability Testing

Abstract

Delay- and disruption-tolerant networking (DTN) technology is increasingly being considered for deep space exploration missions. In particular, DTN is being considered for trunk-line communications between ground and lunar elements of the Artemis program. Licklider transmission protocol (LTP) is a DTN protocol that supports reliable data transmission within a network and, as such, functions as a necessary “convergence-layer” protocol in the architecture. Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) has recently developed an LTP reference implementation and performed an interoperability test with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Interplanetary Overlay Network (ION) DTN software. The test revealed that there can be significant variation in issuing report segments and data segment retransmission, which can lead to errors or malfunction during LTP transaction. This paper presents the results of the interoperability test between different implementations of LTP together with some implementation considerations suggested by the results to overcome the issues of the interoperability among different LTP implementations.