High Performance Communication and Navigation Systems for Interplanetary Networks

The increasing development of technologies enabling efficient space exploration and data communications has recently fostered a number of scientific missions, aimed at supporting the research in the field of geology and astronomy. To this end, the design of an effective telecommunication infrastructure is the challenge offered to research scientists and space engineers. In particular, the definition of a network architecture suitable to support both communication and navigation services is of paramount importance for future space missions. In this view, this paper reviews protocols and architectures presently used in space missions and proposes improved transmission strategies, relying upon a packet-layer coding approach, which is expected to improve the overall performance.