Speaker
Description
In this paper, we introduce a basic LunaNet GNU Radio library, aiming to make full-stack lunar mission communications and networking easily accessible. The library implements pieces of the LunaNet Interoperability Specification (LNIS) - the protocol suite defined for international commercial and government lunar mission internetworking. The library is used with GNU Radio, a free, open-source software.
We describe a simple demonstration network, showing how to set up a basic signal transmitter and receiver conforming to the LNIS using GNU Radio, connected to a compliant host networking stack. The demonstration involves only an example from the suite of multiple different LNIS waveforms.
This work is designed to benefit any academic institution, government agency, commercial NewSpace company, or other organization that will design or develop mission endpoints and network elements to integrate with LunaNet. An open software library lowers the bar to developing reliably interoperable lunar missions and infrastructure. Using GNU Radio to lower the bar for labs to initially set up and working with LNIS-compliant systems can lead to more diverse and successful lunar exploration efforts.
Easy and cheap availability of Berkeley Unix and the TCP/IP stack helped to spur widespread adoption and innovation in the early days of the Internet. LunaNet can be viewed as analogous to the Internet for the moon, and will similarly benefit from an easily available general-purpose stack that works with free or low-cost components (e.g. GNU Radio and commodity software defined radio hardware platforms). This will facilitate growth of LunaNet and strong interoperability for new players including small companies, academic institutions, and other organizations without traditional deep-space communications background and related infrastructure and capabilities. Since LNIS adopts an open-standard approach, it could also foster broader usage and innovation for some of the newer technologies (e.g. delay-tolerant networking, lunar navigation, messaging, etc.) within the stack, since the GNU Radio approach is well-suited to lab research and development activities.
| Talk Length | 15 Minutes |
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