Cross-layer design and ant-colony optimization based routing algorithm for low earth orbit satellite networks

To improve the robustness of the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites networks and realise load balancing, a Cross-layer design and Ant-colony optimization based Load-balancing routing algorithm for LEO Satellite Networks (CAL-LSN) is proposed in this paper. In CAL-LSN, mobile agents are used to gather routing information actively. CAL-LSN can utilise the information of the physical layer to make routing decision during the route construction phase. In order to achieve load balancing, CAL-LSN makes use of a multi-objective optimization model. Meanwhile, how to take the value of some key parameters is discussed while designing the algorithm so as to improve the reliability. The performance is measured by the packet delivery rate, the end-to-end delay, the link utilization and delay jitter. Simulation results show that CAL-LSN performs well in balancing traffic load and increasing the packet delivery rate. Meanwhile, the end-to-end delay and delay jitter performance can meet the requirement of video transmission.