Data-Driven Heuristic Assisted Memetic Algorithm for Efficient Inter-Satellite Link Scheduling in the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System

Inter-satellite link(ISL)scheduling is required by the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System(BDS)to guarantee the system ranging and communication performance.In the BDS,a great number of ISL scheduling instances must be addressed every day,which will certainly spend a lot of time via normal metaheuristics and hardly meet the quick-response requirements that often occur in real-world applications.To address the dual requirements of normal and quick-response ISL schedulings,a data-driven heuristic assisted memetic algorithm(DHMA)is proposed in this paper,which includes a high-performance memetic algorithm(MA)and a data-driven heuristic.In normal situations,the high-performance MA that hybridizes parallelism,competition,and evolution strategies is performed for high-quality ISL scheduling solutions over time.When in quick-response situations,the data-driven heuristic is performed to quickly schedule high-probability ISLs according to a prediction model,which is trained from the high-quality MA solutions.The main idea of the DHMA is to address normal and quick-response schedulings separately,while high-quality normal scheduling data are trained for quick-response use.In addition,this paper also presents an easy-to-understand ISL scheduling model and its NP-completeness.A seven-day experimental study with 10080 one-minute ISL scheduling instances shows the efficient performance of the DHMA in addressing the ISL scheduling in normal(in 84 hours)and quick-response(in 0.62 hour)situations,which can well meet the dual scheduling requirements in real-world BDS applications.

Inter-satellite Link Topology Design and Relative Navigation for Satellite Clusters

A distributed relative navigation approach via inter-satellite sensing and communication for satellite clusters is proposed. The inter-satellite link(ISL)is used for ranging and exchanging data for the relative navigation,which can improve the autonomy of the satellite cluster. The ISL topology design problem is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem where the energy consumption and the navigation performance are considered. Further,the relative navigation is performed in a distributed fashion,where each satellite in the cluster makes observations and communicates with its neighbors via the ISL locally such that the transmission consumption and the computational complexity for the navigation are reduced. The ISL topology optimization problem is solved via the NSGA-Ⅱ algorithm,and the consensus Kalman filter is used for the distributed relative navigation. The proposed approach is flexible to varying tasks,with satellites joining or leaving the cluster anytime,and is robust to the failure of an individual satellite. Numerical simulations are presented to verify the feasibility of the proposed approach.

Dynamic Characteristics of Inter-Satellite Links in LEO Networks

To establish an efficient inter-satellite link (ISL) in an LEO network, the effect of geometric characteristics of ISL on the ISLs and the devices on the LEO satellite should be examined. Because of the continuous movement of the LEO satellite, the time-varying behaviours of the ISL's geometric charactersistics continuously change with the changes of the satellite's position on the orbit. These dynamic geometric characteristics of the ISLs are important for ISL's performance analyzing and the design of the devices on the LEO satellite. This paper describes dynamic geometric characteristics of ISL, analyzes the impact of these regulations on the tracking system of the satellite's antenna and the power adjusting system of the satellite's transmitter, with the Iridium system as an example.

Adaptive frame length algorithm for inter-satellite links

In view of the low ranging efficiency of the conventional fixed frame-length algorithm in the inter-satellite link,an adaptive frame-length algorithm is proposed. The frame length is adjusted adaptively according to the results of ranging and velocity measuring to improve ranging efficiency. Buffers which enable the frame length to be selected discretely and adaptively are introduced to avoid frequent hopping of the frame-length.Frame length marker is created to automatically identify the frame-length for frame synchronization procedures in receivers. The feasibility and the validity of the proposed algorithm to improve the efficiency of ranging are verified through both theoretic analysis and simulation,and the efficiency improves up to 88% when there are five buffers. This improvement can be further enhanced by increasing the number of buffers. Proper allocation of inter-satellite buffers is required to make a balance between the ranging efficiency and the system complexity.

Impacts of inter-satellite links on the ECOM model performance for BDS-3 MEO satellites

Inter-satellite link(ISL)plays an essential role in current and future Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS).In this study,we investigate the impact of ISL observations on precise orbit determination for BeiDou-3 Navigation Satellite System(BDS-3)Medium Earth Orbit(MEO)satellites based on different Extended CODE Orbit Models(ECOM).Thanks to the better observation geometry of the Ka-band ISL data compared to the L-band data for BDS-3 MEO satellites,the ISL solution substantially reduces Orbit Boundary Discontinuity(OBD)errors,except for C30,which suffers from unstable Ka-band hardware delay.From the external quality analysis,ISL significantly enhances the reliability of the orbit of MEO satellites manufactured by the China Academy of Space Technology(CAST).The standard deviation(STD)of the satellite laser ranging(SLR)residuals is approximately 2.5 cm,and the root mean square(RMS)is reduced by 10–23%compared to L-band solutions.Besides,the Sun-elongation angle dependent systematic error in SLR residuals nearly vanishes based on the reduced 5-parameter ECOM(ECOM1)or extended 7-parameter ECOM(ECOM2)with ISL data.This is because the ISL reduces the correlation between state parameters and solar radiation pressure(SRP)parameters as well as those among SRP parameters,leading to a more accurate estimation of both orbit and SRP perturbations,particularly those along B direction.This confirms that the deficiency of the SRP models for BDS-3 CAST satellites can be compensated by using better observation geometry from ISL data.On the other hand,for the satellite manufactured by Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites(SECM),the ISL allows for a more accurate estimation of the Bc_(1)parameter in the ECOM1 model.This only reduces linear systematic error,possibly because the impact generated by the satellite bus cannot be entirely absorbed by the B-direction parameters.

An RVT-based power allocation method for dynamic LEO-MEO links

Optimizing the power resources allocation method of low earth orbit(LEO)satellites to medium earth orbit(MEO)satellite'links is a significant way to construct efficient satellite constellations for satellite communication.A game theory power allocation method based on remaining visible time(RVT)of LEO-MEO satellites is proposed.Firstly,one LEO-MEO satellite network is classified as a cluster in which the RVT of LEO satellites is modeled.Secondly,the cost function of RVT concerning the character of orbit and throughput in each LEO satellite is mainly designed,which gives greater punishment of utility value to LEO satellites with less RVT and is an essential part of the reasonable utility function applied in diverse motion scenes.Meanwhile,the existence of Nash equilibrium for the proposed utility function in game theory area is proved.Thirdly,an off-cluster scheme for LEO satellites through the proposed threshold is raised to ensure the overall utility value of the whole LEO satellites in cluster.Finally,the performance improvement of the proposed algorithm to the baseline algorithm is verified through simulations in different scenarios.

欧美月球GNSS规划现状分析综述

月球是地球最重要的天然卫星,当前国际上正在迎来新一轮月球探索高潮,数十个机构和商业团队正在规划月球探索任务,并设想在未来实现航天员长期驻月,围绕月球的“太空竞赛”刚刚开始。月球GNSS(基于现有的地球GNSS以及新的环月卫星通信导航基础设施的月球卫星通信导航定位技术)是空间基准科研的基础,能够提供航天器着陆定位以及月面(及其覆盖空间)定位、导航与授时等服务,同时可以将月球作为试验场,将导航工具包扩展到更远的目的地(如火星)。对欧美近期发布的月球GNSS规划进行了整理归纳,其中包括美国月球GNSS接收机实验(LuGRE)计划和欧洲月光(MoonLight)计划,以及美国中远期月球通信中继和导航系统(LCRNS)计划,这些计划可以为我国开展月球GNSS规划提供参考。

Schmidt算法在导航卫星自主定轨中的应用

针对现有导航卫星自主定轨采用的等效观测Kalman滤波算法精度难以进一步提升的问题,本文将顾及卫星间状态量协方差信息的Schmidt分布式算法应用于自主定轨,给出了逐观测量处理的Schmidt分布式算法测量更新和时间更新计算公式,提出了采用平方根滤波方法解决Schmidt分布式算法用于星间链路定轨时协方差阵非负定问题。仿真和实测数据自主定轨结果表明,相比等效观测分布式滤波算法,本文方法能够有效提升自主定轨精度。

Link16数据链导航功能实现与改进

基于同步的相对导航与精确定位技术是Link16数据链运行的关键。针对国内文献对该技术介绍较少的情况,分析了相对导航的基本原理,研究了利用往返计时报文实现精确同步的方法和步骤,建立了相对导航解算方程以及相对栅格与地理栅格坐标之间的数据转换模型,最后提出了一种用GPS/IMU数据融合和卡尔曼滤波方法提高导航精度的方案。应用结果表明,该方案能显著提高数据链的导航精度。

基于“OODA环”优化的卫星导航定位安全与对抗应用研究

卫星导航定位设备的“生存”环境日益复杂、严峻,各类电子对抗、干扰欺骗十分激烈,人为干扰已成为卫星导航定位安全与对抗的重点。针对传统手段无法有效应对干扰复杂性、全面性、系统性的不足,本文在分析“OODA环”理论和实践转化的基础上,结合复杂环境下“干扰-抗干扰”的整体对抗过程,优化“OODA环”运行,将其与卫星导航定位安全与对抗应用进行耦合,提出基于“环境感知-筛选隔离-检测识别-效能评估-策略规划-对抗反制-回访反馈-再感知”的卫星导航定位安全与对抗不定向循环链路,并对拓展、映射的七个环节及关键技术进行分析、论证。通过引入“循环”和“不定向”两个概念,不仅实现了周期性外循环和部分环节内循环的嵌套迭代和导向性传输的运行机制;而且优化了内循环的自由度,使得各环节互联且独立、循环但不定向,有效增强了卫星导航定位安全与对抗的鲁棒性。本文的设计思路可加快实现循环链路的动态闭环,提高对抗的整体效能,在实践应用和技术论证中具有一定的参考价值。

基于Link16与DGPS的组合导航系统

为进一步改善JTIDS/INS/GPS组合导航系统在现代联合作战中的作用,提出一种新的工作体制,即将差分GPS引入到JTIDS/INS/GPS组合导航系统中,可以显著提高导航定位精度。同时以Link 16的通信链路传输差分GPS的差分信息,节省系统资源,增强系统的可控性和抗干扰性。通过仿真对有无差分和差分基准站数量不同两种情况下的定位性能进行比较分析,验证了系统设计的有效性。

基于激光微波混合星间链路的导航星座网络优化方法

为满足空天信息传输容量快速增长的需求,针对未来卫星高速率大带宽的发展趋势,提出了基于激光微波混合星间链路的北斗导航网络优化方法。分析了混合链路在星间链路测距能力、路由收敛效率,并进行了仿真,验证了协同测距、协同管理方法在提升混合网络效率中的有效性。仿真结果表明:Ka频段激光协同测距时间相较传统微波网络短,定位精度因子(PDOP)最高值由3.4降低至2.3;混合网络路由收敛速度较单激光网络快,由41 s降至15 s左右。

The transmission link of CAPS navigation and communication system

The Chinese Area Positioning System (CAPS) is based on communication satellites with integrated capability, which is different from the Global Positioning System (GPS), the International Maritime Satellite Organization (Inmarsat) and so on. CAPS works at C-band, and its navigation information is not directly generated from the satellite, but from the master control station on the ground and transmitted to users via the satellite. The slightly inclined geostationary-satellite orbit (SIGSO) satellites are adopted in CAPS. All of these increase the difficulty in the design of the system and terminals. In this paper, the authors study the CAPS configuration parameters of the navigation master control station, information transmission capability, and the selection of the antenna aperture of the communication center station, as well as the impact of satellite parameters on the whole communication system from the perspective of the transmission link budget. The conclusion of availability of the CAPS navigation system is achieved. The results show that the CAPS inbound communication system forms a new low-data-rate satellite communication system, which can accommodate mass communication terminals with the transmission rate of no more than 1 kbps for every terminal. The communication center station should be configured with a large-aperture antenna (about 10-15 m); spread spectrum com- munication technology should be used with the spreading gain as high as about 40 dB; reduction of the satellite transponder gain attenuation is beneficial to improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the system, with the attenuation value of 0 or 2 dB as the best choice. The fact that the CAPS navigation system has been checked and accepted by the experts and the operation is stable till now clarifies the rationality of the analysis results. The fact that a variety of experiments and applications of the satellite communication system designed according to the findings in this paper have been successfully carried out confirms the correctness of the study results.

GNSS系统中通信服务能力比较与电文播发策略研究

随着世界各大导航卫星系统(GNSS)导航定位授时服务性能的日渐完善,在卫星导航系统中发展通信能力逐渐成为趋势,除了北斗系统明确宣布提供导航定位授时和通信数传两大类服务,其他GNSS系统中也出现了部分通信导航融合的服务功能。系统地梳理了欧洲伽利略(Galileo)、日本准天顶卫星系统(QZSS)、印度卫星导航系统(NavIC)和中国北斗卫星导航系统(BDS)目前已经具备或正在发展中的单向通信服务能力,提出了从通信容量、定位实时性、链路鲁棒性和服务弹性4个维度评估通导融合电文性能,综合比较了目前GNSS信号中的通导融合电文性能。针对北斗B2b电文基本框架,提出了一种首次定位时间(TTFF)约束下的竞争式通导融合电文播发策略,兼顾了通信容量与定位实时性两方面性能的动态平衡,为GNSS中通导融合服务的持续优化设计提供参考。

Autonomous satellite constellation orbit determination using the star sensor and inter-satellite links data

A method of autonomous orbit determination for a satellite constellation using a star sensor combined with inter satellite links(ISLs) is studied.Two types of simulated observation data,Three-Satellite Constellation ISLs and background stellar observations by a CCD star sensor,are first produced.Based on these data,an observation equation is built for the constellation joint autonomous orbit determination,in which the simulations are run.The accuracy of this method with different orbital determination models are analyzed and compared with regard to the effect of potential measurement errors.The results show that autonomous satellite constellation orbit determination using star sensor measurement and ISLs data is feasible.Finally,this paper arrives at several conclusions which contribute to extending this method to a more general satellite constellation.

Analysis of the connectivity and robustness of inter-satellite links in a constellation

In the design of new constellation configurations or research of existing constellation performance,the connectivity and robustness of inter-satellite links (ISL) are needed for analysis.In this paper,graph theory is used to analyze the connectivity and robustness of the ISL in constellations,which are measured under the requirements of a short average distance and a small range of ISL azimuth angles,elevation angles and distances.The method to determine ISL connectivity by using the adjacency matrix of graph theory is put forward for the first time,and the standards of the ISL performance are given using:the number of ways between any two satellites,cutting point,cutting edge,k-connectivity degree and k-edge connectivity degree of graph theory.Finally,in the simulation,the ISLs in the Walker 24/6/1 constellation and the ISLs in the Walker 24/3/1 constellation are established from the optimal perspective of the azimuth angle,elevation angle and distance,and the characteristics of ISL in the Walker 24/6/1 and Walker 24/3/1 constellations are compared.The conclusions of this paper can be used as a reference for the design of new constellation configurations and analysis of existing ISLs.

3种典型地月轨道的天基定轨与时间同步

基于地月轨道天基定轨与时间同步精度协同困难的问题,提出一种地月空间航天器天基测定轨与时间同步的方法。低地球轨道(Low Earth Orbit,LEO)卫星作为“天基测控站”,接收全球卫星导航系统(Global Navigation Satellite System,GNSS)信号实现高精度实时定轨与授时,同时与地月空间航天器建立测量链路,支持地月航天器快速高精度轨道的确定。与地面站相比,LEO卫星运行速度快、绕地周期短,地月空间航天器与其建立的测量链路具有不可见时间间隔短、测量几何较优、测量过程不受大气延迟影响的优点。因此使用LEO卫星可提高定轨的收敛速度和精度。分析了地月空间3种典型轨道的天基定轨与时间同步性能,包括远距离逆行轨道(Distant Retrograde Orbit,DRO)、大椭圆轨道(Highly Elliptical Orbit,HEO)和地月转移轨道。天基定轨仿真结果显示,LEO卫星位置精度较高时,3种轨道定轨收敛时间小于3h,定轨位置精度为50m左右,时间同步精度为数十纳秒级。该方法有望解决中国地面站部署受限、地面测控负担重的问题。

Orbit determination and time synchronization for BDS-3 satellites with raw inter-satellite link ranging observations

To provide competitive global positioning and timing services under the condition that monitoring stations are confined to Chinese territory,inter-satellite link(ISL)technology is used by the third-generation BeiDou Navigation Satellite System(BDS-3).The ISL,together with the dual one-way links between satellites and anchor stations,may enable autonomous navigation for BDS-3.In this paper,we propose a general observation model for orbit determination(OD)and time synchronization(TS)directly using non-simultaneous observations,such as raw ISL pseudoranges.With the proposed model,satellite orbits,clocks,and hardware delay biases of ISL equipment can be determined simultaneously by jointly processing inter-satellite one-way pseudorange data and observation data from ground monitoring stations.Moreover,autonomous OD and TS are also achievable with one-way pseudorange data from anchor stations and satellites.Data from eight BDS-3 satellites,two anchor stations,and seven monitoring stations located in China were collected to validate the proposed method.It is shown that by jointly processing data from the ISL and seven monitoring stations,the RMS of overlap orbit differences in radial direction is 0.019 m,the overlap clock difference(95%)is 0.185 ns,and the stability of the estimated hardware delay biases for each satellite is greater than 0.5 ns.Compared with the results obtained with the seven stations,the improvements of orbits in radial direction and clocks are 95.7%and 90.5%,respectively.When the hardware delay biases are fixed to predetermined values,the accuracies of orbits and clocks are further improved.By jointly processing pseudoranges from the satellites and the two anchor stations,the RMS of overlap orbit differences is 0.017 m in the radial direction,and the overlap clock difference(95%)is 0.037 ns.It has also been demonstrated that under the condition of one-way ranging links,the accuracies of orbits and clocks obtained by the above two modes are still significantly better than those obtained by using the data from the monitoring stations alone.

Inter-satellite link augmented BeiDou-3 orbit determination for precise point positioning

Precise Point Positioning(PPP) requires precise products, including high-accuracy satellite orbit and clock parameters. It is impossible to obtain an orbit solution that is sufficiently accurate for PPP services with a regional tracking network;therefore, satellite orbits are usually estimated by a global tracking network with a large number of ground stations. However, it is expensive to build globally distributed stations. Fortunately, BeiDou-3 satellites carry an InterSatellite Link(ISL) payload, which can track the whole arc of the BeiDou-3 satellites and enhance the orbit determination accuracy with regional ground stations. In this contribution, a novel orbit determination strategy for BeiDou-3 PPP is proposed, in which the BeiDou-3 satellite orbits are enhanced by the ISL. First, the generation of precise satellite products is demonstrated in detail.In addition, the products are assessed by Satellite Laser Ranging(SLR) residuals and overlap comparisons. Moreover, the products are used for receivers in China's Mainland to carry out the static and kinematic modes to research the PPP performance of Bei Dou-3’s 3IGSO/24MEO constellation.The SLR validations of the satellite orbits demonstrate an accuracy better than 0.1 m in the radial component, and the orbit overlap comparisons show accuracies of 0.016 m in the radial component,0.088 m in the along-track component and 0.087 m in the cross-track component. The Standard Deviation(STD) in the differences in overlapping arcs for the estimated satellite clocks is approximately 0.10 ns. The static PPP results demonstrate that the error in both the horizontal and vertical components is smaller than 10 cm after 30 minutes of convergence. After 24 hours of convergence,the errors are 0.70 cm, 0.63 cm and 1.99 cm for the north, east and up components, respectively.The kinematic PPP experiment illustrates that the Root Mean Square(RMS) position errors in the north, east and up components are approximately 3.23 cm, 5.27 cm and 8.64 cm, respectively,after convergence. The obtainable positioning and convergence performances are comparable to those using products generated by global tracking networks.

Precise orbit determination for a large LEO constellation with inter-satellite links and the measurements from different ground networks:a simulation study

Geodetic applications of Low Earth Orbit(LEO)satellites requires accurate satellite orbits.Instead of using onboard Global Navigation Satellite System observations,this contribution treats the LEO satellite constellation independently,using Inter-Satellite Links and the measurements of different ground networks.Due to geopolitical and geographical reasons,a ground station network cannot be well distributed.We compute the impact of different ground networks(i.e.,global networks with different numbers of stations and regional networks in different areas and latitudes)on LEO satellite orbit determination with and without the inter-satellite links.The results are based on a simulated constellation of 90 LEO satellites.We find that the orbits determined using a high latitude network is worse than using a middle or low latitude network.This is because the high latitude network has a poorer geometry even if the availability of satellite measurements is higher than for the other two cases.Also,adding more stations in a regional network shows almost no improvements on the satellite orbits if the number of stations is more than 16.With the help of ISL observations,however,the satellite orbits determined with a small regional network can reach the same accuracy as that with the global network of 60 stations.Furthermore,satellite biases can be well estimated(less than 0.6 mm)and have nearly no impact on satellite orbits.It does thus not matter if they are not physically calibrated for estimating precise orbits.