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Results for “Communication Network Scheduling”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1993

Predicting scheduling success

This paper provides an analytical formulation to predict scheduling success for a class of problems frequently referred to as activity scheduling. Space Network communications scheduling is an example of activity scheduling. The principal assumption is that the activity start times are randomly distributed over the available time in the time line. The formulation makes it possible to estimate how much of the demand can be scheduled as a function of the demand, number of resources, activity duration, and activity flexibility. The paper includes computed results for a variety of resource and demand conditions. The results demonstrate that even with highly flexible activities, it is difficult to schedule demand greater than 60 percent of resources without the use of optimization and conflict resolution capabilities in the scheduling system.

Messing, Fredric↗
NASA NTRS2012

Mixed Integer Programming and Heuristic Scheduling for Space Communication Networks

In this paper, we propose to solve the constrained optimization problem in two phases. The first phase uses heuristic methods such as the ant colony method, particle swarming optimization, and genetic algorithm to seek a near optimal solution among a list of feasible initial populations. The final optimal solution can be found by using the solution of the first phase as the initial condition to the SQP algorithm. We demonstrate the above problem formulation and optimization schemes with a large-scale network that includes the DSN ground stations and a number of spacecraft of deep space missions.

Communication Network Scheduling↗
NASA NTRS1997

Resource Scheduling for a Network of Communications Antennas

This paper describes tha Demand Access Network Scheduler (DANS) system for automatically scheduling and rescheduling resources for a network of communication antennas. DANS accepts a baseline schedule and supports rescheduling of antenna and subsystem resources to satisfy tracking goals in the event of changing track requests, equipment outages, and inclement weather.

Deep↗
NASA NTRS2019

Space Communications and Navigation Validation: Extracting Data for the Strategic Center for Networking, Integration, and Communications Scheduling Algorithms

Efficiency in communication system architecture performance between Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) assets and missions is crucial, as space communication is varied, complex, and often not utilized to its full potential. The SCaN Strategic Center for Networking, Integration, and Communications (SCENIC) new scheduling algorithms, which are designed to simulate the allocation of resources between SCaN assets and missions, have the potential to simulate an increase of this efficiency; however, they require real-world data to be validated against. The purpose of this project was to extract said validation data, which details the frequency and duration of utilized contact windows between missions and assets in the Near Earth Network (NEN), Space Network (SN), and Deep Space Network (DSN). Stored as images in daily operations summaries (DOSs), the tabular data existed in a variety of file formats such as.pdf, .docx, and .doc. Since the tables were stored as images, ABBYY® FineReader® (ABBYY Software Ltd.) optical character recognition (OCR) was implemented, which is a proprietary software that reads images from text. The comma separated value (CSV) output was utilized as input to a series of MATLAB® (The MathWorks, Inc.) methods for reformatting, at which point it was ready to be machine-read. Finally, the results were converted to a Microsoft Excel format for human readability. Along with being used for validation purposes, the data will also be used to map equipment degradation as a function of time to analyze the reliability of network assets.

Kontur, Noah P.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Mixed Integer Programming and Heuristic Scheduling for Space Communication Networks

We developed framework and the mathematical formulation for optimizing communication network using mixed integer programming. The design yields a system that is much smaller, in search space size, when compared to the earlier approach. Our constrained network optimization takes into account the dynamics of link performance within the network along with mission and operation requirements. A unique penalty function is introduced to transform the mixed integer programming into the more manageable problem of searching in a continuous space. The constrained optimization problem was proposed to solve in two stages: first using the heuristic Particle Swarming Optimization algorithm to get a good initial starting point, and then feeding the result into the Sequential Quadratic Programming algorithm to achieve the final optimal schedule. We demonstrate the above planning and scheduling methodology with a scenario of 20 spacecraft and 3 ground stations of a Deep Space Network site. Our approach and framework have been simple and flexible so that problems with larger number of constraints and network can be easily adapted and solved.

Mixed Integer Programming↗
NASA NTRS2017

Systematic Hybrid Network Scheduling for Multiple Traffic Classes with Host Timing and Phase Constraints

Systems and methods for systematic hybrid network scheduling for multiple traffic classes with host timing and phase constraints are provided. In certain embodiments, a method of scheduling communications in a network comprises scheduling transmission of virtual links pertaining to a first traffic class on a global schedule to coordinate transmission of the virtual links pertaining to the first traffic class across all transmitting end stations on the global schedule; and scheduling transmission of each virtual link pertaining to a second traffic class on a local schedule of the respective transmitting end station from which each respective virtual link pertaining to the second traffic class is transmitted such that transmission of each virtual link pertaining to the second traffic class is coordinated only at the respective end station from which each respective virtual link pertaining to the second traffic class is transmitted.

Varadarajan, Srivatsan↗
NASA NTRS2003

Recent results in Mars Relay Network planning and scheduing

At different time periods in the future, Mars missions will overlap and previous studies indicate that during such periods existing deep space communication infrastructure will not be able to handle all Mars communication needs. A plausible solution is to perform optimal resource allocation for the Mars relay communication network; a network consisting of multiple surface units and orbiters on Mars and the Deep Space Stations. Unlike direct-to-earth, a relay communication, either in real-time or store-and-forward, can increase network science data return, reduce surface unit's direct-to-earth communication demands, and enable communication even when the surface unit is not facing Earth. It is the objective of this paper to take advantage of the relay operation to efficiently plan and schedule the network communications.

Relay Network planning and scheduling constrained ↗
NASA NTRS2005

Distributed network scheduling

We investigate missions where communications resources are limited, requiring autonomous planning and execution. Unlike typical networks, spacecraft networks are also suited to automated planning and scheduling because many communications can be planned in advance.

scheduling↗
NASA NTRS2004

Distributed network scheduling

Distributed Network Scheduling is the scheduling of future communications of a network by nodes in the network. This report details software for doing this onboard spacecraft in a remote network. While prior work on distributed scheduling has been applied to remote spacecraft networks, the software reported here focuses on modeling communication activities in greater detail and including quality of service constraints. Our main results are based on a Mars network of spacecraft and include identifying a maximum opportunity of improving traverse exploration rate a factor of three; a simulation showing reduction in one-way delivery times from a rover to Earth from as much as 5 to 1.5 hours; simulated response to unexpected events averaging under an hour onboard; and ground schedule generation ranging from seconds to 50 minutes for 15 to 100 communication goals.

planning↗
NASA NTRS2017

Interference Cognizant Network Scheduling

Systems and methods for interference cognizant network scheduling are provided. In certain embodiments, a method of scheduling communications in a network comprises identifying a bin of a global timeline for scheduling an unscheduled virtual link, wherein a bin is a segment of the timeline; identifying a pre-scheduled virtual link in the bin; and determining if the pre-scheduled and unscheduled virtual links share a port. In certain embodiments, if the unscheduled and pre-scheduled virtual links don't share a port, scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link to overlap with the scheduled transmission of the pre-scheduled virtual link; and if the unscheduled and pre-scheduled virtual links share a port: determining a start time delay for the unscheduled virtual link based on the port; and scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link in the bin based on the start time delay to overlap part of the scheduled transmission of the pre-scheduled virtual link.

Varadarajan, Srivatsan↗
NASA NTRS2013

Contact Graph Routing Enhancements Developed in ION for DTN

The Interplanetary Overlay Network (ION) software suite is an open-source, flight-ready implementation of networking protocols including the Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) Bundle Protocol (BP), the CCSDS (Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems) File Delivery Protocol (CFDP), and many others including the Contact Graph Routing (CGR) DTN routing system. While DTN offers the capability to tolerate disruption and long signal propagation delays in transmission, without an appropriate routing protocol, no data can be delivered. CGR was built for space exploration networks with scheduled communication opportunities (typically based on trajectories and orbits), represented as a contact graph. Since CGR uses knowledge of future connectivity, the contact graph can grow rather large, and so efficient processing is desired. These enhancements allow CGR to scale to predicted NASA space network complexities and beyond. This software improves upon CGR by adopting an earliest-arrival-time cost metric and using the Dijkstra path selection algorithm. Moving to Dijkstra path selection also enables construction of an earliest- arrival-time tree for multicast routing. The enhancements have been rolled into ION 3.0 available on sourceforge.net.

Segui, John S.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Mixed Integer Programming and Heuristic Scheduling for Space Communication

Optimal planning and scheduling for a communication network was created where the nodes within the network are communicating at the highest possible rates while meeting the mission requirements and operational constraints. The planning and scheduling problem was formulated in the framework of Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) to introduce a special penalty function to convert the MIP problem into a continuous optimization problem, and to solve the constrained optimization problem using heuristic optimization. The communication network consists of space and ground assets with the link dynamics between any two assets varying with respect to time, distance, and telecom configurations. One asset could be communicating with another at very high data rates at one time, and at other times, communication is impossible, as the asset could be inaccessible from the network due to planetary occultation. Based on the network's geometric dynamics and link capabilities, the start time, end time, and link configuration of each view period are selected to maximize the communication efficiency within the network. Mathematical formulations for the constrained mixed integer optimization problem were derived, and efficient analytical and numerical techniques were developed to find the optimal solution. By setting up the problem using MIP, the search space for the optimization problem is reduced significantly, thereby speeding up the solution process. The ratio of the dimension of the traditional method over the proposed formulation is approximately an order N (single) to 2*N (arraying), where N is the number of receiving antennas of a node. By introducing a special penalty function, the MIP problem with non-differentiable cost function and nonlinear constraints can be converted into a continuous variable problem, whose solution is possible.

Lee, Charles H.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Dynamic Routing for Delay-Tolerant Networking in Space Flight Operations

Contact Graph Routing (CGR) is a dynamic routing system that computes routes through a time-varying topology composed of scheduled, bounded communication contacts in a network built on the Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN) architecture. It is designed to support operations in a space network based on DTN, but it also could be used in terrestrial applications where operation according to a predefined schedule is preferable to opportunistic communication, as in a low-power sensor network. This paper will describe the operation of the CGR system and explain how it can enable data delivery over scheduled transmission opportunities, fully utilizing the available transmission capacity, without knowing the current state of any bundle protocol node (other than the local node itself) and without exhausting processing resources at any bundle router.

CGR↗
NASA NTRS1994

Evaluating Space Network (SN) scheduling operations concepts through statistical analysis

The Network Control Center (NCC) currently uses the NCC Data System (NCCDS) to schedule customer spacecraft communication requests for the Space Network (SN). The NCC/Request Oriented Scheduling Engine (NCC/ROSE), which implements an operational concept called flexible scheduling, is being tested as a potential replacement for the NCCDS scheduler in an effort to increase the efficiency of the NCC scheduling operations. This paper describes the high fidelity benchmark tests being conducted on NCC/ROSE, the evaluation techniques used to compare schedules, and the results of the tests. This testing will verify the increases in efficiency and productivity that can help the NCC meet the anticipated scheduling loads well into the next century.

Kwadrat, Carl↗
NASA NTRS1993

The Automated Conflict Resolution System (ACRS)

The Automated Conflict Resolution System (ACRS) is a mission-current scheduling aid that predicts periods of mutual interference when two or more orbiting spacecraft are scheduled to communicate with the same Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) at the same time. The mutual interference predicted has the potential to degrade or prevent communications. Thus the ACRS system is a useful tool for aiding in the scheduling of Space Network (SN) communications.

Kaplan, Ted↗