Role-specialization in clustered satellite platforms

• US 10,069,935 B1
• Filed: 07/19/2017
• Issued: 09/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Vector Launch, Inc.
• Inventors: Coleman, Shaun, Garber, Darren D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Viet D
• Application Number:
  US15/653,807
• Time in Patent Office: 412 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18504 Aircraft used as relay or high altitude atmospheric platform
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/06 Airborne or Satellite Networks space-based or airborne stations H04B7/185

Abstract

Systems, methods, and software described herein provide enhancements for satellite platforms. In one example, a satellite platform includes a plurality of satellite devices, with one or more of the satellite devices comprising specialized roles defined by at least one among software elements and hardware elements targeted to the specialized roles. Individual ones of the satellite devices are configured to identify tasks to be serviced using one or more of the specialized roles, determine one or more target satellite devices among the plurality of satellite devices to handle the tasks based at least in part on attributes of the target satellite devices, and transfer at least task instructions for delivery to the target satellite devices for performing the tasks.

Claims

1. A satellite platform, comprising:

a plurality of satellite devices positioned in orbit and having specialized roles defined at least by presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements that vary among the plurality of satellite devices; and

individual ones of the plurality of satellite devices configured to;

maintain attribute scoring metrics that rate one or more satellite devices in competency among at least a portion of the specialized roles;

identify tasks to be serviced using one or more of the specialized roles;

based at least in part on the attribute scoring metrics, determine one or more target satellite devices that satisfy the one or more of the specialized roles to handle the tasks; and

transfer at least task instructions for delivery to the one or more target satellite devices for performing the tasks using at least one among the presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements associated with the one or more of the specialized roles.

2. The satellite platform of claim 1, wherein the attribute scoring metrics are stored in a data structure relating identities of the one or more satellite devices to competency ratings associated with the specialized roles.

3. The satellite platform of claim 1, wherein the specialized roles comprise one or more of a data processing role, a data storage role, an imaging role, a satellite-to-ground communication role, and a virtualized software execution role.

4. The satellite platform of claim 1, wherein the task instructions comprise state information related to execution of virtual nodes by the plurality of satellite devices, and comprising:

the one or more target satellite devices comprising virtualized execution systems configured to receive the state information and execute one or more software applications as virtual nodes according to the state information to perform the task instructions using the at least one among the presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements associated with the one or more of the specialized roles.

5. The satellite platform of claim 1, comprising:

the individual ones of the satellite devices further configured to transfer the task instructions through one or more peer satellite devices of the satellite platform to reach the one or more target satellite devices; and

responsive to receiving the task instructions, each receiving peer satellite device is configured to evaluate received task instructions against one or more specialized role attributes of the receiving peer satellite device to determine if the receiving peer satellite device has a corresponding specialized role to act in accordance with the task instructions or should instead transfer the task instructions to at least one further peer satellite.

6. The satellite platform of claim 1, wherein the tasks to be serviced using the one or more of the specialized roles comprise imaging tasks for a specialized role to capture image data corresponding to an underlying geographic region;

and comprising;

based at least on receipt of the task instructions, a first satellite device configured to determine that the first satellite device has the specialized role to capture the image data, capture the image data corresponding to the underlying geographic region and transfer the image data for receipt by a second satellite device.

7. The satellite platform of claim 6, wherein the second satellite device corresponds to a specialized role of graphics processing, and comprising:

based at least on receipt of the image data, the second satellite device configured to determine that the second satellite device has the specialized role of graphics processing, and process the image data to determine processed image data according to at least further task instructions comprising the image data.

8. The satellite platform of claim 7, comprising:

the second satellite device configured to transfer the processed image data for delivery to a ground communication system using at least a peer satellite device having a specialized role corresponding to satellite-to-ground communication.

9. The satellite platform of claim 1, wherein the tasks to be serviced using the one or more specialized roles comprise satellite-to-ground communications;

and comprising;

a first satellite device having a specialized role of satellite-to-ground communication configured to transfer data associated with the tasks for receipt by a ground communication system based at least on receipt of the task instructions and data from another satellite device.

10. A method of operating a satellite platform, the method comprising:

defining specialized roles among a plurality of satellite devices positioned in orbit, wherein the specialized roles are defined based at least on presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements that vary among the plurality of satellite devices;

maintaining attribute scoring metrics that rate one or more satellite devices in competency among at least a portion of the specialized roles;

identifying tasks to be serviced using one or more of the specialized roles;

based at least in part on the attribute scoring metrics, determining one or more target satellite devices that satisfy the one or more of the specialized roles to handle the tasks; and

transferring at least task instructions for delivery to the one or more target satellite devices for performing the tasks using at least one among the presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements associated with the one or more of the specialized roles.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the attribute scoring metrics are stored in a data structure relating identities of the one or more satellite devices to competency ratings associated with the specialized roles.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the specialized roles comprise one or more of a data processing role, a data storage role, an imaging role, a satellite-to-ground communication role, and a virtualized software execution role.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the task instructions comprise state information related to execution of virtual nodes by virtualized execution systems of the satellite devices, and comprising:

in the one or more target satellite devices, receiving the state information and executing one or more software applications as associated virtual nodes according to the state information to perform the task instructions using the at least one among the presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements associated with the one or more of the specialized roles.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

transferring the task instructions through one or more peer satellite devices of the satellite platform to reach the one or more target satellite devices; and

responsive to receiving the task instructions by each receiving peer satellite device, evaluating received task instructions against the one or more specialized roles of the receiving peer satellite device to determine if the receiving peer satellite device has a corresponding specialized role to act in accordance with the task instructions or should instead transfer the task instructions to at least one further peer satellite.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the tasks to be serviced using the one or more of the specialized roles comprise imaging tasks for a specialized role to capture image data corresponding to an underlying geographic region;

and further comprising;

based at least on receipt of the task instructions in a first satellite device, determining that the first satellite device has the specialized role to capture the image data, capturing the image data corresponding to the underlying geographic region, and transferring the image data for receipt by a second satellite device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein an attribute of the second satellite device corresponds to a specialized role of graphics processing, and further comprising:

based at least on receipt of the image data in the second satellite device, determining that the second satellite device has the specialized role of graphics processing, and processing the image data to determine processed image data according to at least further task instructions comprising the image data.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

in the second satellite device, transferring the processed image data for delivery to a ground communication system using at least a peer satellite device having a specialized role corresponding to satellite-to-ground communication.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the tasks to be serviced using the one or more specialized roles comprise satellite-to-ground communications;

and further comprising;

based at least on receipt of the task instructions and data transferred by another satellite device, in a first satellite device having a specialized role of satellite-to-ground communication, transferring data associated with the tasks for receipt by a ground communication system.

19. A satellite device positioned in orbit, comprising:

a communication system configured to receive task descriptions and associated data from at least one peer satellite device;

a task execution system configured to identify specialized roles indicated in the task descriptions and determine if the satellite device supports one or more of the specialized roles for processing the associated data based at least on a present provisioning of software elements and hardware elements in the satellite device;

based at least on the satellite device supporting the one or more of the specialized roles, the task execution system configured to execute one or more tasks for processing the associated data in accordance with associated task descriptions; and

based at least on the satellite device not supporting the one or more of the specialized roles, the task execution system configured to instruct the communication system to transfer the associated task descriptions and the associated data for delivery to a further peer satellite device supporting the one or more of the specialized roles, wherein the further peer satellite device is selected from among a plurality of satellite devices having specialized roles defined at least by presently provisioned software elements and hardware elements that vary among the plurality of satellite devices.

20. The satellite device of claim 19, wherein the associated data comprise state information related to execution of virtual nodes by the task execution system of the satellite device, and comprising:

based at least on the satellite device supporting the one or more of the specialized roles, the task execution system configured to execute one or more software applications as associated virtual nodes according to the state information; and

based at least on the satellite device not supporting the one or more of the specialized roles, the task execution system configured to transfer the state information related to execution of virtual nodes for delivery to the further peer satellite device.