Delay-Tolerant Networking - Killer Ap - Aviation Week & Space Technology article

Killer ap, In Orbit, Frank Morring, Jr. (ed.), Aviation Week and Space Technology, 29 September 2008, p. 18.

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. says it has demonstrated a new "bundle" protocol that can compensate for frequent disruptions in space-based Internet transmissions. The bundle disruption- and delay-tolerant networking protocol, which had never been used before in space, successfully delivered sensor data from SSTL's UK-DMC, a British spacecraft in the company's disaster monitoring constellation. Four of the five satellites in the DMC rely on standard Internet-protocol networking to send mission-critical imagery. The first complete image - of South Africa's Cape of Good Hope - was downloaded in fragments in two satellite passes to a "bundle agent" at an SSTL ground station, using a Cisco Systems Internet router. From there it was sent to NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, where the fragments were reassembled before being returned to SSTL for post-processing and orthorectification. The process will be presented at the International Astronautical Congress in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sept. 30.

Download article in Acrobat pdf format. Online as SSTL shows value of Bundle IP Protocol.

Read and cite the later IAC paper, which describes successful testing.