This paper presents an inter-satellite link (ISL) reassignment method to optimize the snapshot routing performance for polar-orbit LEO satellite networks. When the snapshot routing tables are switching simultaneously in all satellites, we propose to reassign the inter-plane ISLs with regularity to improve the quality of the next snapshot, such as snapshot duration, on-board transceiver utilization ratio and end to end delay. Evaluations indicate that our method can attain equal-length snapshots regardless of the latitude of the polar area border, and so is superior to the natural partition method. Meanwhile, compared with the equal partition method which is used in the Iridium system, our method can prolong 82.87% snapshot duration, increase 8.68% on-board transceiver utilization ratio and reduce 5.30% average end to end delay of the whole network. Therefore, we believe that the ISL reassignment method can be efficiently applied in all practical polar-orbit LEO satellite networks.

In this paper, we analyze the rollback traffic in polar-orbit satellite networks that use the snapshot routing algorithm. The concept of diamond rollback links and polar rollback links are presented for the first time, and the numbers of diamond and polar rollback links in polar-orbit satellite networks are concisely formulated. Simulations are performed based on the Iridium and Teledesic system in NS2, and the results finally confirm our analysis. With this work, we can not only simplify the rollback loops avoidance scheme, but also provide guidance for future satellite network routing optimization and topology design.

Comparing with that of terrestrial networks, the location management in satellite networks is mainly restricted by three factors, i.e., the limited on-board processing (OBP), insufficient link resources and long propagation delay. Under these restrictions, the limited OBP can be smoothened by terrestrial gateway-based location management, the constraint from link resources demands the bandwidth-efficient management scheme and long propagation delay potentially lowers the management efficiency. Currently, the reduction of the management cost has always been the main direction in existing work which is based on the centralized management architecture. This centralized management has many defects, such as the non-optimal routing, scalability problem and single point of failure. To address these problems, this paper explores gateway-based distributed location management schemes for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks. Three management schemes based on terrestrial gateways are proposed and analyzed: loose location management, precise location management, and the grouping location management. The analyses specifically analyze the cost of location queries and show their significant influence on the total cost which includes the location management and query. Starting from the above analysis, we speculate and prove the existence of the optimum scheme in grouping location management, which has the lowest total cost for the query frequency within given range. Simulation results validate the theoretical analysis on the cost and show the feature of latency in location queries, which provide a valuable insight into the design of the distributed location management scheme in satellite networks.

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), with its advantages in routing isolation support and mature application, is a promising candidate to integrate satellite systems into the terrestrial IP network. However, with more and more ground stations accessing satellites by BGP, a significant amount of routing overhead can be produced on limited satellite links, especially for geostationary satellite networks with thousands of accessing terminals in extremely large areas. To solve this challenge, multicast transport of BGP was proposed, which takes advantage of the inherent broadcast property of wireless channels. However, its performance can be seriously degraded when interfered with the environment. In this paper, NCSR (Network Coding for Satellite network BGP Routing transport) [1] is explored in depth. Unlike existing counterparts, NCSR pays more attention to the lossy space links and can achieve reliability with more bandwidth savings. A greedy based coding algorithm is proposed to realize the network coding operation. To demonstrate the efficiency of NCSR, we conduct theoretical analyses and extensive simulations in typical scenarios of satellite systems. Simulation results show that NCSR can greatly reduce the bandwidth usage while achieving comparable latency. Discussions on practical considerations when applying network coding method for reliability assurance are also presented in detail.