Ground stations networks for Free-Space Optical communications: maximizing the data transfer

Mikaël Capelle (1, 2) , Marie-José Huguet (1, 3) , Nicolas Jozefowiez (1, 3) , Xavier Olive (2)

1 LAAS-ROC - Équipe Recherche Opérationnelle, Optimisation Combinatoire et Contraintes
2 TAS - Thales Alenia Space [Toulouse]
3 INSA Toulouse - Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Toulouse

Free-space optical communications are becoming a mature technology, but unlike current radio-frequency technologies, they are strongly impacted by clouds. In this paper, we aim to find a network of optical ground stations maximizing the amount of data that can be sent from a low-earth orbiting satellite to the Earth during its missions, taking into consideration cloud information. We present a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP) and a hierarchical method based on an exhaustive enumeration of the sets of ground stations and on a dynamic programming algorithm and compare them on real scenarios based on archived years of cloud data. Even if the MILP can solve scenarios over small time horizons in less than one hour, experiments show that the hierarchical approach outperforms it in term of CPU time while achieving optimality.

Mots clés: Dynamic Programming; Mixed-Integer Linear Programming; Free-Space Optical Communications; Optical Ground Station Network; Optimisation

Domaines: Recherche opérationnelle [math.OC]

Mikaël Capelle, Marie-José Huguet, Nicolas Jozefowiez, Xavier Olive. Ground stations networks for Free-Space Optical communications: maximizing the data transfer. 8th International Network Optimisation Conference (INOC 2017), Feb 2017, Lisbonne, Portugal. pp.255-264. ⟨hal-01540961⟩