Low-orbit satellite network structure, networking method, controller and medium
Technical Field
The invention relates to the technical field of low-orbit satellite communication, in particular to a low-orbit satellite network structure, a networking method, a controller and a medium.
Background
The Low Orbit satellite network refers to a space network formed by a plurality of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Low Orbit satellites, and the Orbit height of the Low Orbit satellites is 500KM-1000KM from the ground. As satellite miniaturization succeeds, the manufacturing and transmission costs of low-orbit satellites continue to decrease, which makes it possible to build a switching network in space with the low-orbit satellites. The satellites of the existing network operation mode of the low-orbit satellite network are arranged according to a specific orbit, one satellite is usually provided with a ground station, and a ground terminal device held by a user sends a radio and carries out one-hop forwarding through the current overhead satellite, so that communication between the users or access of the users to the Internet, such as an iridium satellite system, is realized, as shown in fig. 1.
Therefore, in the existing low-orbit network system, the management and control of the satellites are completed by the ground stations, the management and control of the satellites are required to be carried out through the ground stations, the satellites in the rest time are required to have autonomous capability, network forwarding tasks are independently completed, the satellites do not have or have little inter-satellite links (such as 2 experimental inter-satellite links on an iridium system), the satellites do not have networking capability, the ground stations have to rent the existing ground network if necessary, but the ground stations are deployed globally or rent expensive bandwidths, huge cost consumption is caused, maintenance difficulty is increased, and therefore, the traditional satellite network design cannot effectively realize cost control, network flexibility is poor, and network operation income is further affected.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide a low-orbit satellite network structure, a networking method, a controller and a medium, which simplify the low-orbit satellite network structure, greatly reduce the system deployment cost and improve the flexibility of the network.
In order to solve the above technical problems, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a network structure of low-orbit satellites including a first controller installed on the ground and a plurality of low-orbit satellites distributed in the earth's low-orbit warp orbit,
The low-orbit satellites are connected through physical links, the first controller is communicated with overhead satellites in the plurality of low-orbit satellites, and the interconnected low-orbit satellites can communicate with each other.
Further, the physical links include a laser link and a radio link.
Further, the physical topology of the low orbit satellite network structure is a lattice topology structure, and the low orbit satellite network structure is connected end to end and comprises a plurality of rings.
Further, one or more ground-mounted second controllers are also included for communicating with an overhead low-orbit satellite in lieu of the first controller in the event of a failure of the first controller.
Further, each low-orbit satellite is provided with a network switching module and a space communication module, wherein,
The network switching module is used for receiving the control information of the control plane sent by the first controller and converting the control information into a corresponding control instruction to be sent to the space communication module, and receiving the data forwarding control information sent by the first controller and converting the data forwarding control information into a corresponding data forwarding instruction to be sent to the space communication module;
The space communication module is used for forwarding control information of a control plane to a corresponding satellite according to the received control instruction and forwarding data to the corresponding satellite or ground terminal according to the received data forwarding instruction.
Further, the network switching module comprises a control plane management interface, a data plane management interface, a management process unit and a control proxy unit, wherein,
The control plane management interface is respectively connected with the first controller and the management process unit and is used for receiving control information of the control plane sent by the first controller and sending the control information to the management process unit;
the data plane management interface is respectively connected with the first controller and the management process unit and is used for receiving the data forwarding control information sent by the first controller and sending the data forwarding control information to the management process unit;
The management process unit is used for generating or rewriting a control information flow table according to the received control information of the control plane, generating or rewriting a data forwarding flow table according to the received data forwarding control information, and forwarding the control information of the control plane and the data forwarding control information to the control proxy unit;
The control agent unit is respectively connected with the management process unit and the soft switching path unit, and is used for analyzing the control information of the control plane, converting the control information into a control instruction, forwarding the control information of the control plane to a corresponding satellite according to a control information flow table and the control instruction, analyzing the data forwarding control information, converting the data forwarding control information into a data forwarding instruction, and transmitting the data forwarding instruction to a hardware unit corresponding to the space communication module through the software switching path according to the data forwarding flow table;
The soft switch access unit is respectively connected with the network card device and the control proxy unit, and is used for analyzing the data message received from the network card device and matching the data forwarding flow table.
Further, the space communication module comprises an antenna, a conversion unit, a baseband and a network card device which are connected in sequence, wherein,
The network card device is used for converting the data format of the data to be forwarded and supporting the required access function, and the access function comprises a TDMA function;
The baseband is used for carrying out code modulation of a digital domain on data to be transmitted and transmitting the data to the digital/analog conversion subunit, and is also used for demodulating and decoding a digital signal received from the analog/digital conversion subunit and transmitting the digital signal to the network card equipment;
the conversion unit comprises a digital/analog conversion subunit and an analog/digital conversion subunit, wherein the digital/analog conversion subunit is used for converting a digital signal into an analog signal, and the analog/digital conversion subunit is used for converting the analog signal into a digital signal;
the antenna is used for receiving and transmitting modulated radio waves.
Further, the network switching module further includes:
and the fault recovery unit is used for rewriting the control information flow table when the network fails to perform recovery decision.
Further, the network switching module further includes:
the system management interface is used for monitoring, managing and recovering the health condition of the operating system;
The core network management interface is used for interacting user management information with the core network module;
The user management unit is used for authenticating and charging the user during network operation and sending QOS control information to the management process unit;
the management process unit is also used for generating or rewriting QOS strategies according to the QOS control information.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a low-orbit satellite network networking method, including:
The method comprises the steps that physical links are adopted to connect low-orbit satellites, a physical topological structure of a low-orbit satellite network is established, and all the low-orbit satellites in the physical topological structure can communicate with a first controller positioned on the ground;
establishing a logic topology structure of a control channel based on the physical topology structure, wherein the logic topology structure can traverse all low-orbit satellites and has no logic loop;
the overhead satellite receives control information of a control plane sent by the first controller and forwards the control information of the control plane to a corresponding satellite based on the logic topology structure;
and the overhead satellite receives the data forwarding control information sent by the first controller and forwards the data based on the satellite or the ground terminal corresponding to the physical topological structure.
Further, the overhead satellite receives control information of the control plane sent by the first controller, and forwards the control information of the control plane to a corresponding satellite based on the logic topology structure, including:
Receiving control information of a control plane sent by the first controller;
generating or rewriting a control information flow table according to the received control information of the control plane;
analyzing the control information of the control plane and converting the control information into a control instruction;
And forwarding the control information of the control plane to a corresponding satellite in the logic topology structure according to the control information flow table and the control instruction.
Further, the overhead satellite receives the data forwarding control information sent by the first controller, and performs data forwarding based on the satellite or the ground terminal corresponding to the physical topology structure, including:
Receiving data forwarding control information sent by the first controller;
Generating or rewriting a data forwarding flow table according to the received data forwarding control information;
Analyzing the data forwarding control information and converting the data forwarding control information into a data forwarding instruction;
and carrying out data forwarding based on the satellite or ground terminal corresponding to the physical topological structure according to the data forwarding flow table and the data forwarding instruction.
According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a controller comprising a memory and a processor, the memory storing a computer program which, when executed by the processor, is capable of carrying out the steps of the method.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a computer readable storage medium is provided for storing a computer program which when executed by a computer or processor implements the steps of the method.
Compared with the prior art, the invention has obvious advantages and beneficial effects. By means of the technical scheme, the low-orbit satellite network structure, the networking method, the controller and the medium can achieve quite technical progress and practicality, and have wide industrial utilization value, and the low-orbit satellite network structure has at least the following advantages:
The invention can build the low-orbit satellite network by establishing links between the low-orbit satellites and realizing communication with the same ground station without global ground station deployment or renting ground network, simplifies the structure of the low-orbit satellite network, greatly reduces the system deployment cost and improves the flexibility of the network, and in addition, the control plane and the data plane of the invention are separated, thereby realizing the in-band control of the control plane and enhancing the fault tolerance and the coordination capability of the low-orbit satellite network.
The foregoing description is only an overview of the present invention, and is intended to be implemented in accordance with the teachings of the present invention, as well as the preferred embodiments thereof, together with the following detailed description of the invention, given by way of illustration only, together with the accompanying drawings.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional low-orbit satellite network;
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a low-orbit satellite network according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a service process of a low-orbit satellite network according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 (a) is a physical topology diagram of a low-orbit satellite network according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 (b) is a schematic diagram of a logic topology of a low-orbit satellite network according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 (c) is a schematic diagram illustrating a data flow path of a low-orbit satellite network according to an embodiment of the present invention;
fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a low-orbit satellite network structure and a ground gateway 4 structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[ Symbolic description ]
1 First controller 2 low orbit satellite
3 Mobile terminal 4 ground gateway
21 Network exchange module 22 space communication module
211 Control plane management interface 212 data plane management interface
213 Management Process Unit 214 control agent Unit
215 Fault recovery unit 216 system management interface
217 Core network management interface 218 user management unit
221 Antenna 222 conversion unit
223 Baseband 224 network card equipment
Detailed Description
In order to further describe the technical means and effects adopted by the present invention to achieve the preset purposes, the following detailed description refers to a specific implementation and effects of a low-orbit satellite network structure, a networking method, a controller and a medium according to the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings and preferred embodiments.
The embodiment of the invention provides a low-orbit satellite network structure, as shown in fig. 2, which comprises a first controller 1 installed on the ground and a plurality of low-orbit satellites 2 distributed on the earth in the low-orbit warp orbit, wherein the low-orbit satellites 2 are connected by adopting physical links, the first controller 1 communicates with overhead satellites in the plurality of low-orbit satellites 2, and the interconnected low-orbit satellites 2 can communicate. Wherein the physical links may be laser links and radio links.
The satellites in the low-orbit satellite network structure can form inter-satellite links with adjacent satellites, and any two satellites on the whole network can realize communication by means of one-hop or multi-hop inter-satellite links. On the basis, a globally logically unique first controller 1 is arranged on the ground, the first controller 1 is positioned on a ground station, the first controller is connected with a satellite which passes through the top at a certain moment, is connected with each satellite of the whole network through an inter-satellite link, and interacts control information, when the first controller 1 is out of the coverage range of the current satellite, the first controller 1 completes the connection with the next satellite which passes through the top, namely completes the switching, and realizes the control information interaction by utilizing the new satellite which passes through the top, thereby realizing the management and control of the whole network at the whole moment. As an example, the low-orbit satellite network structure further comprises one or more second controllers installed on the ground, and the second controllers are used for replacing the first controller 1 to communicate with the overhead low-orbit satellite 2 when the first controller 1 fails, so that the stability and reliability of the low-orbit satellite network structure can be improved.
The low-orbit satellite network structure provided by the embodiment of the invention is provided with the only network controller on the whole network logic, namely the first controller 1, and the low-orbit satellite network can be built by establishing links between the low-orbit satellites 2 and realizing communication with the same ground station without global ground station deployment or renting the ground network, so that the low-orbit satellite network structure is simplified, the system deployment cost is greatly reduced, and the network flexibility is improved.
Fig. 3 shows a service manner of the low-orbit satellite network structure according to the embodiment of the present invention, similar to a mobile network, the mobile terminal 3 (which may be deployed on a vehicle, a mobile device, etc.) may communicate with an overhead satellite through a radio, and when information is accessed to the overhead satellite, the information may reach the ground gateway 4 through one or more hops of inter-satellite links, and the ground gateway 4 forwards the information to the internet or forwards the information to the user terminal through a satellite network after gathering the information, so that it can be known that the low-orbit satellite network structure according to the embodiment of the present invention may be compatible with an existing network system.
Fig. 4 (a) -4 (c) show a networking manner of a low-orbit satellite network according to an embodiment of the present invention, and fig. 4 (a) is a physical topology structure of the low-orbit satellite network, where the physical topology is a lattice-like network, and has a plurality of loops connected end to end. The physical topology is characterized by the fact that the same pair of nodes has extremely rich routes, and the transmission of the traffic flow in the network can select different paths because of flexible adjustment capability. The network control and the network forwarding on the satellite of the low orbit satellite network structure in the embodiment of the invention are separated, namely, only the satellite node receives the forwarding instruction and completes the forwarding according to the instruction, and the generation (forwarding strategy) of the forwarding instruction is completed by the first controller 1. The advantage of this is that, in addition to the first controller 1 being able to implement the whole network information collection and thus form a better decision, frequent broadcasting caused by the conventional "self-learning" procedure can be avoided as much as possible. The method also enables all satellites to work in a two-layer exchange state without setting network segments and routing domains, thereby further improving the forwarding speed and reducing the control complexity.
The existing ground commercial network also has a control and forwarding phase separation technology, and is characterized in that control information needs to be interacted with each other through an independent control network. However, in a space network such as a low-orbit satellite network, it is difficult to physically manage the network or add a management channel due to limitation of resources, because a new transceiver needs to be added, on the one hand, there may be serious interference in space, and on the other hand, system load and management cost are increased, so that an existing inter-satellite link may be used to multiplex control information and data information together, and a logical channel is reserved for the control information to form a plane for flow of the control information, and this implementation method is also called in-band (i n-band) control. In conventional in-band control, the information flow of the control plane is uncontrolled, and the forwarding of control information depends on conventional self-learning, requiring full-network broadcasting. Since there are a lot of loops in the physical topology of the low orbit satellite network, if self-learning broadcast through the whole network inevitably forms network storm, and further causes port blocking, which affects data communication, it cannot be tolerated. Therefore, in-band control needs to be redesigned, and the core principle of this design is to let the control plane (i.e. the whole of the control channel) be controlled by the first controller 1, and the control result of the first controller 1 on the control plane does not affect the data forwarding function at all. Based on the physical topology of the low orbit satellite network as shown in fig. 4 (a), the control channel forms a tree-shaped control plane by designing a forwarding flow table for control information for each node, and the control plane topology is basically unchanged in normal operation as shown in fig. 4 (b), but the control plane is adjusted when the network scale is changed or the network has faults. In fig. 4 (c), the control of the route between any two points is implemented by using a unified controller, so that the optimal path configuration can be completed, no loop is formed, and no network storm occurs.
In order to realize the separation of the control plane and the data plane, the control plane is controlled in-band, and on the basis, a low-orbit satellite network with high flexibility, strong fault tolerance and strong coordination is realized, and corresponding module support is required to be arranged on the satellite. Fig. 5 illustrates the detailed structure of the satellite nodes and the ground gateway 4 nodes in the low-orbit satellite network, and the following details of the respective parts of the satellite nodes will be described:
As an example, each of the low-orbit satellites 2 is provided with a network switching module 21 and a space communication module 22, and it should be noted that, in order to illustrate a plurality of satellites included in the low-orbit satellite network structure, a plurality of space communication modules 22 are shown in fig. 5, each space communication module 22 corresponds to one satellite, but since the network switching modules 21 have a plurality of constituent units, not all the constituent units in each network switching module 21 are shown one by one, but it is understood that each low-orbit satellite structure includes one network switching module 21 and one space communication module 22. The network switching module 21 is configured to receive control information of a control plane sent by the first controller 1, convert the control information into a corresponding control instruction, send the corresponding control instruction to the space communication module 22, receive data forwarding control information sent by the first controller 1, convert the data forwarding control information into a corresponding data forwarding instruction, and send the corresponding data forwarding instruction to the space communication module 22, where the space communication module 22 is configured to forward control information of the control plane to a corresponding satellite according to the received control instruction, and forward data to the corresponding satellite or a ground terminal according to the received data forwarding instruction.
The network switching module 21 comprises a control plane management interface 211, a data plane management interface 212, a management process unit 213 and a control proxy unit 214, wherein the control plane management interface 211 is respectively connected with the first controller 1 and the management process unit 213 and is used for receiving control information of a control plane sent by the first controller 1 and sending the control information to the management process unit 213, the data plane management interface 212 is respectively connected with the first controller 1 and the management process unit 213 and is used for receiving data forwarding control information sent by the first controller 1 and sending the control information to the management process unit 213, the management process unit 213 is provided with a globally unique and fixed I P address and is used for generating or rewriting a control information flow table according to the received control information of the control plane and generating or rewriting a data forwarding flow table according to the received data forwarding control information, and forwarding the control information of the control plane and forwarding the data forwarding control proxy unit 214 are respectively connected with the management process unit 213 and a software switching path unit 213 and is used for receiving the data forwarding control information sent by the first controller 1 and the software switching path unit and is used for converting the control plane into a control signal to a control signal, the data forwarding table is converted into a control signal and a data forwarding table, the data forwarding module is used for forwarding the data forwarding and the data forwarding module is converted into a control signal and a data forwarding command, the data forwarding module is converted into a data forwarding command and a data forwarding command, the data forwarding unit is corresponding to the data forwarding and the data forwarding module is generated or is forwarded by the received data forwarding command and the data forwarding control data, the soft switch path unit is respectively connected with the network card device 224 and the control proxy unit 214, and is used for analyzing the data message received from the network card device 224 and matching the data forwarding flow table. The flow table refers to a forwarding table of a service flow, and generally includes a field for identifying the flow and which port the corresponding action is sent to, etc.
As an example, the network switching module 21 further includes a fault recovery unit 215, configured to rewrite the control information flow table to make a recovery decision when the network fails, which is not controlled by the first controller 1. The network switching module 21 may further include a system management interface 216, a core network management interface 217, and a user management unit 218, where the system management interface 216 is used to monitor, manage and recover the health status of the operating system, the core network management interface 217 is used to interact with the core network module with user management information, the user management unit 218 is used to authenticate and charge the user during network operation, and send quality of service (QOS) control information to the management process unit 213, and the management process unit 213 is further used to generate or rewrite QOS policies according to the QOS control information.
As an example, the spatial communication module 22 includes an antenna 221, a conversion unit 222, a baseband 223, and a network card device 224 connected in sequence, wherein the network card device 224 is used for converting a data format of data to be forwarded and supporting a desired access function, the access function includes a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technology, the baseband 223 is used for performing digital-domain code modulation on the data to be transmitted and transmitting to a digital/analog conversion subunit, and further is used for demodulating and decoding a digital signal received from the analog/digital conversion subunit and transmitting to the network card device 224, the conversion unit 222 includes a digital/analog conversion subunit and an analog/digital conversion subunit, the analog/digital conversion subunit is used for converting the analog signal into a digital signal, and the antenna 221 is used for receiving and transmitting a modulated radio wave.
The ground gateway 4 node has an empty antenna 221 for passing the overhead satellite interaction data, and the main difference between the satellite node and the ground gateway 4 node is that in order to be compatible with the ground network, the exchange equipment in the ground gateway 4 node can directly adopt a commercial exchange, so that the compatibility between the low-orbit satellite network mechanism and the existing network is embodied.
Based on the satellite node architecture shown in fig. 5, taking video services as an example, one embodiment of the network operation process is illustrated in steps:
(1) The user requests a video service, the video server sends the content to a corresponding gateway, the gateway completes user authentication, and rate limitation is carried out according to the payment standard of the user;
(2) The gateway transmits the video stream forwarding intention to the first controller 1, the first controller 1 designs a video transmission path and QoS strategy, and transmits control information (forwarding through a control plane) to the relevant satellite, and after the configuration is successful, the gateway transmits the video stream forwarding intention to the overhead satellite through the over-the-air antenna;
(3) In the overhead satellite, after the radio wave carrying the video stream is received by the antenna 221, the radio wave passes through the analog/digital conversion unit 222, the baseband 223 and the network card device 224 in sequence to reach the soft switch path;
(3) In the operation system, before the video stream arrives, the data forwarding control information is received by the data forwarding management interface, and the data forwarding flow table is added or rewritten, and the antenna angle, the analog/digital and digital/analog conversion rate, the baseband coding and decoding method and the modulation format and the QoS strategy of the network card are cooperatively controlled by the control proxy unit 214 to ensure the high-reliability data receiving and transmitting;
(4) The network card device 224 will queue and forward according to the QoS policy, and send the video stream to the baseband 223, the d/a conversion unit 222, and to the adjacent satellite or the ground terminal via the antenna 221.
The embodiment of the invention also provides a networking method of the low-orbit satellite network, which comprises the following steps:
Step S1, connecting low-orbit satellites by adopting a physical link, and establishing a physical topological structure of a low-orbit satellite network, wherein all the low-orbit satellites in the physical topological structure can be communicated with a first controller positioned on the ground;
step S2, establishing a logic topology structure of a control channel based on the physical topology structure, wherein the logic topology structure can traverse all low-orbit satellites and has no logic loop;
step S3, the overhead satellite receives control information of the control plane sent by the first controller, and forwards the control information of the control plane to the corresponding satellite based on the logic topology structure;
and S4, receiving data forwarding control information sent by the first controller by the overhead satellite, and forwarding data based on the satellite or the ground terminal corresponding to the physical topological structure.
As an example, the step S3 includes:
step S31, receiving control information of a control plane sent by the first controller;
step S32, generating or rewriting a control information flow table according to the received control information of the control plane;
S33, analyzing the control information of the control plane, and converting the control information into a control instruction;
And step S34, forwarding the control information of the control plane to the corresponding satellite in the logic topology structure according to the control information flow table and the control instruction.
As an example, the step S4 includes:
Step S41, receiving data forwarding control information sent by the first controller;
step S42, generating or rewriting a data forwarding flow table according to the received data forwarding control information;
s43, analyzing the data forwarding control information and converting the data forwarding control information into a data forwarding instruction;
And step S44, carrying out data forwarding based on the satellite or ground terminal corresponding to the physical topological structure according to the data forwarding flow table and the data forwarding instruction.
The embodiment of the invention also provides a controller, which comprises a memory and a processor, wherein the memory stores a computer program, and the program can realize the steps of the low-orbit satellite network networking method when being executed by the processor.
The embodiment of the invention also provides a computer readable storage medium for storing a computer program which when executed by a computer or processor implements the steps of the low orbit satellite network networking method.
The low-orbit satellite network structure and the networking method do not need to be deployed on the ground station in the global scope and do not need to rent the ground network, and the low-orbit satellite network can be built by establishing links between the low-orbit satellites and realizing communication with the same ground station, so that the low-orbit satellite network structure is simplified, the system deployment cost is greatly reduced, and the flexibility of the network is improved.
The present invention is not limited to the preferred embodiments, and the present invention is described above in any way, but is not limited to the preferred embodiments, and any person skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, while the above disclosure is directed to various equivalent embodiments, which are capable of being modified or varied in several ways, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that many modifications, variations and adaptations of the embodiments described above are possible in light of the above teachings.