Genetic Algorithm for TDRS Communication Scheduling with Resource Constraints

The focus of this paper is dynamic link allocation algorithms for sharing the limited link resources of the tracking and data relay satellites (TDRS) system among many burst users with varying quality of service (QoS) requirements. The task of scheduling communications between TDRS link and spacecraft is getting more and more critical since an increasing number of spacecraft must communicate with ground station by the TDRS. In such a congested scenario, the current practice, in which experts build hand-made schedules, often leaves a large number of communication requests un-served. This paper proposes a tight time-indexed formulation of the problem to include several complex technological constraints. A genetic algorithm is then devised which provides near-optimal solutions of a set of large-scale test problems arising in the TDRS-spacecraft constellation. As the simulation result, the genetic algorithm shows numerical stability and robustness adequate for practical implementation.