An Integrated Prototyping and Simulation Architecture for Space Specific Protocol Developments and Verifications

The design and development of future satellite networks includes preferably, besides a thorough system definition phase, the simulation of the entire satellite network with special interest on the network behavior and the (prototype based) development of system components. Especially with respect to the development of MAC protocols which should preferably included at an earliest stage in the network simulation workflow, an integrated approach of simulating and rapid prototyping of these protocols is desireable. This paper presents such an integrated workflow to develop future satellite networks and protocols. It consists of a simulation based part including the well-known toolsets STK and OPNET, and a part embedding a rapid prototyping and testing environment developed by Fraunhofer FOKUS.cats. Emphasis is put on the latter prototyping and testing unit and its possible use cases, e.g., protocol development (as done within the ATM-Sat project [1]) or mere satellite channel emulation (as used for the evaluation of connecting the ISS-Columbus module via ATM to earth).