[CMC] Opportunity for participation in NASA's DTN Project

[Hooke, Adrian J (9000)]

CMC members: for your information, an Announcement of Opportunity to participate in NASA's Space Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) project has recently been released:

http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eps/synopsis.cgi?acqid=146586

OPPORTUNITY FOR PARTICIPATION IN NASA'S DISRUPTION-TOLERANT NETWORKING PROJECT.  Solicitation Number:  NNH11CAO001O

A summary is appended below.  This is primarily focused on industry participation, but CCSDS Agencies may want to form relationships with any of their industrial partners who plan to respond. Please note the section 3.0  condition that NASA will not consider proposals which do not include a domestic [US] entity as the lead proposer, but finding such a US lead is usually not too difficult.

Best regards
Adrian
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1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

To support upcoming robotic and human exploration needs, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) anticipates that it and others will need to implement a unified architecture for internetworked communication and navigation services that span the solar system. Unlike the terrestrial internet, a future Solar System Internet (SSI) must be capable of accommodating intermittent connectivity, long or variable delays, asymmetric data rates, and high data loss rates. The underlying capability that enables the SSI is commonly referred to as "Disruption-Tolerant Networking" (DTN). The SSI will employ both opportunistic and scheduled communications paths to optimize routing among nodes of the SSI, while maintaining low communications overhead and data processing load.

NASA anticipates that all elements of its evolving Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) architecture will interface using the SSI. This architecture embraces the following: a. Spacecraft and landed vehicles distributed across the Solar System; b. The ground and space-based facilities and data communications assets of what are presently known as the Near Earth Network (NEN), the Deep Space Network (DSN), and the Space Network (SN); c. Data communications elements on and around bodies beyond Earth, including the intercommunications components of individual free flying spacecraft, collaborative constellations of spacecraft, or networks of landed vehicles; d. Data relays/gateways in remote locations, such as orbiting the Moon and Mars; and e. Planetary surface local and wide area networks (note that viewed in this context, the terrestrial Internet is subsumed in the SSI as a wide area network).

NASA wishes to support the development and mission infusion of international data communications standards for new DTN technologies through open cooperation and collaboration from and among the worldwide industrial supplier base to ensure that the evolution of the future DTN technologies (anticipated to be used by both government and industry) achieve the highest level of international interoperability and coordination. Specific contributions from industry could include: integrated spacecraft; spacecraft payloads; spacecraft components (such as communications terminals and onboard networks); local and wide area networks for deployment on remote bodies and planetary surfaces (including mobile, ad-hoc networks); integrated ground network components (such as a ground station running DTN data exchange with mission users across the terrestrial Internet); and end-to-space mission applications that are inherently capable of running across a DTN network where there is seldom a contemporaneous end-to-end data path.

In support of this effort, NASA has initiated a "Space DTN Project" that involves the cooperative work of its major research Centers and also some of NASA's international partners. As part of NASA's support for the Project, it may make facilities available to test and demonstrate new capabilities, using a ground-based "DTN Engineering Network" (DEN). Flight test and demonstration capabilities may also be available, using space-based testbeds, including spacecraft that are in their extended mission phases and thus may be made available for modest reprogramming. A major thrust of the NASA Project will be to use the International Space Station as an environment for the international development and deployment of DTN capabilities, and these facilities may be made available.

NASA is seeking to form a consortium of experts, thought leaders, and market leaders as a DTN Coordinating Group (DTN-CG). This Coordinating Group will contain members from academia, space systems companies, space communications services companies and the general supplier base of commercial space mission support equipment. The DTN-CG will serve as a worldwide body for promulgating and deploying the DTN technologies supporting the SSI. NASA envisions that members of this Coordinating Group will: 1. Collaborate on specifying the technology and standards that will apply to the SSI; 2. Review and provide inputs into architectural trade studies across the elements of the SSI architecture to determine the optimum characteristics and protocols; 3. Exchange information on the availability or future availability of DTN-enabled ground and space product lines; 4. Contribute in the planning and participate in demonstrations performed on NASA's ground-based DTN Engineering Network and DTN  -enabled flight systems, including utilization of the ISS as an international testbed; and 5. Conduct or support R&D to develop innovative implementation technologies that can expedite the infusion of DTN into future interoperable space products.

This Opportunity seeks participants in the DTN Coordinating Group. NASA anticipates using its authority to enter into Space Act Agreements to support this activity, including providing necessary access to NASA personnel and technical information, however, there will be no provision of funds in connection with this opportunity. Respondents will be responsible for financing their own activities. NASA will seek to facilitate the informal participation of respondents who are not initially selected to join the DTN Coordinating Group; however, this cannot be guaranteed.

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