Cognitive Communications for Commercial Networked Earth Observing Fractionated Small Satellites

Low cost fractionated small satellites have emerged as suitable infrastructure for future earth observations. They enable private operators to interactively deliver commercial earth observation services. Private operators have own meteorological networks (MetNets). These MetNets comprise ground and space segment infrastructure. MetNets are also expected to be robust and have enhanced quality of service. They require new communications systems to meet these requirements. This paper presents two mechanisms that meet these requirements. These mechanisms are incorporated in the space and ground segments of a future generation MetNet model. This model is called the cognitive earth observation network model (COEN). COEN comprises hybrid meteorological ground stations (HMGS) and fractionated small satellites in the ground and space segment respectively. The HMGS is hybrid and functions in primary mode using TV white space channels (TVWS) and in hybrid mode when it bonds channels of other networks that are predicted to be idle with own TVWS channels. The performance of COEN is evaluated using channel prediction accuracy, data availability, throughput and latency. The throughput, data availability and latency of COEN is compared with that of an existing network model. Results show that COEN outperforms existing model.