HANDS:A Heterogeneous Aerospace Network architecture for disaggregated satellites based on SpaceWire

Fractionated spacecraft such as system F6, has the potential to significantly enhance the adaptability and survivability of space capabilities, while also shortening the development time for complex space systems. It has become an important trend in the development of small sized satellite. SpaceWire has been widely adopted in satellite for its high throughput in communication and simplicity in design, and it is believed that SpaceWire will be deployed as a common standard in small satellites. However, it lacks the capability to communicate in the fractionated spacecraft scenario. In this paper, we propose HANDS, a Heterogeneous Aerospace Network architectures for Disaggregated Satellite based on SpaceWire. HANDS consists of three parts. First, satellites communicate with their fixed identifier and routing among them could be realized by identifier. The introduction of identifier assures the zero-loss packet during handover process. Second, Egress Router(ER) on satellites maintains reachable information of onboard equipment and shields the difference of the equipment´s location. The introduction of ER helps to keep the SpaceWire communication standard in single satellite and strengthens the scalability of the network. Third, the equipment´s address is coded globally, which benefits the networking between equipment. We also perform careful analysis and discussion on characters of HANDS and show the benefits of this architecture.