Research On The Exploration Routing Algorithm In Space Communication Networks

In this paper,the Space Communication Network and its abstract model DTN are introduced. The protocol architectures of Space Communication Network are summarized and analyzed. The results show that several routing strategies, such as Epidemic routing and its derived routings, Earliest Delivery and its derived routings, Message Ferry and its derived routings, have their own advantages but the common disadvantage is that the network throughput is low. That means they waste some network resources.In order to resolve the utilization problem of the network, a new routing idea named Exploration is proposed in this paper. Exploration routing is a single copy routing strategy. In Exploration routing strategy, source nodes and routing nodes use a feedback mechanism to solve the disrupted link problem. When a message is transmitted by a node, no matter fail or succeeful ,the send node has to inform the upper node of the result. Through the feedback mechanism, Exploration routing can ensure messages reach their destination.In this paper we use STK to simulate the disruption and delay changes of space links. And then, we use OPNET to simulate the several routing strategies. The simulation results show that the Exploration routing strategy has higher throughput. It means that Exploration routing can solve the utilization problem of the space network. But at the same time, simulation results show that the Exploration routing's end-to-end time delay is longer. It's main reason is the failed explorations. It means that the Exploration routing is not suitable if the network has a strictly requirement on time delay.