Interplanetary communication technologies, architectures and applications

Space communications are challenged by long delays, high error probability, frequent intermittent connectivity and link disruption. The challenges promote the progressive improvements of space communications technologies and networking architectures. Nowadays, the physical layer technologies are unable to meet the needs of more complex scientific activities. The communication means is transforming into hop-to-hop to guarantee the reliability and efficiency of a communications process over an interplanetary network. A universal infrastructure for interplanetary networking and novel communication technologies are needed urgently for scientific research and possible commercial applications in the near future. This paper discusses the state-of-the-art of interplanetary communication technologies and network architecture. A networked interplanetary architecture under Earth-Mars scenario is envisioned. A brief overview of Delay/Disruption-Tolerant Network (DTN) architecture are presented. Several representative applications and experiments in space DTN are discussed in details relative to terrestrial DTN applications. Finally, some open issues, such as network modeling, routing, congestion control, security and free space optical communication, are presented for further research.