A compass time-space model-based virtual IP routing scheme for NTSN satellite constellations

Recently, Non-Terrestrial Satellite Networks (NTSTs) have gained more and more attentions due to global coverage, low latency, and high-speed communications. The routing scheme is one of the primary challenges for NTSNs, due to the mega scale of an NTSN constellation and the dynamic topology feature. To solve many pressing problems, a Compass time-space Model-based Virtual IP (CMVIP) routing scheme is proposed in this paper. In order to compensate for discontinuities in existing topology models, a compass-shaped time-space model is proposed. It can be adapted with Inter-Satellite-Link (ISL) and Ground-Satellite-Link (GSL) transmissions. A distributed algorithm with multiple optimization objectives and multiple constraints is applied for routing path discovery. To more realistically verify the specific scheme, a traffic model that supports two different services is proposed. Access and bearer services are the two main applications of an NTSN. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves superior Quality-of-Service (QoS) performance. In addition, comparison results demonstrate that the CMVIP routing scheme is superior to the Virtual-Topology-based Shortest Path (VT-SP) routing algorithm.