Statefulness among clustered satellite platforms

• US 9,722,692 B1
• Filed: 10/19/2016
• Issued: 08/01/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Vector Launch, Inc.
• Inventors: Garber, Darren D., Coleman, Shaun
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, John J
• Application Number:
  US15/297,461
• Time in Patent Office: 286 Days
• Field of Search: 455427, 455 301, 455 302, 455428, 455 121, 455 132
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/95 structured as a network, e.g. client-server architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/13 Satellite images
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/30 in albums, collections or shared content, e.g. social network photos or video
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18519 Operations control, administration or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18521 Systems of inter linked satellites, i.e. inter satellite service for optical links between satellites H04B10/118
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1068 Discovery involving direct consultation or announcement among potential requesting and potential source peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

Systems, methods, and software described herein provide enhancements for deploying applications in satellites. In one example, a satellite may receive software applications capable of execution as virtual nodes on the satellite, and receive a resource schedule associated with the software applications. The satellite may further execute the software applications on the satellite based on the resource schedule, wherein the resource schedule allocates processing resources and user sensor resources to the software applications.

Claims

1. An orbital satellite clustering platform, comprising:

a plurality of satellite devices each comprising a communication interface and a virtualized execution system configured to execute software payloads deployed on the associated satellite device as virtual nodes;

a first satellite device configured to maintain state information related to execution of a first virtual node on the first satellite device and transfer the state information for delivery to at least a second satellite device; and

the second satellite device configured to receive the state information and execute a second virtual node in accordance with the state information.

2. The orbital satellite clustering platform of claim 1, wherein at least the first satellite device and the second satellite device comprise one or more sensor systems communicatively coupled with the associated virtualized execution system over associated communication links;

and comprising;

the first satellite device configured to employ the one or more sensor systems of the first satellite device to establish the state information; and

the second satellite device configured to employ the one or more sensor systems of the second satellite device to modify the state information during execution of the second virtual node by the second satellite device.

3. The orbital satellite clustering platform of claim 1, wherein at least the first satellite device and the second satellite device comprise one or more imaging systems communicatively coupled with the associated virtualized execution system over associated communication links;

and comprising;

the first satellite device configured to employ a first imaging system to establish the state information related to imaging data captured by the first imaging system; and

the second satellite device configured to employ a second imaging system to modify the state information with at least imaging data captured by the second imaging system.

4. The orbital satellite clustering platform of claim 3, comprising:

the second satellite device configured to modify the state information with at least the imaging data captured by the second imaging system to establish positional tracking of at least one ground-based object of interest.

5. The orbital satellite clustering platform of claim 3, comprising:

the second satellite device configured to modify the state information with at least the imaging data captured by the second imaging system by at least refining data analysis of the state information with at least the imaging data captured by the second imaging system in an object recognition process for at least one ground-based object of interest.

6. The orbital satellite clustering platform of claim 1, comprising:

the second satellite device configured to monitor an operational state of at least the first satellite device; and

responsive to detecting a fault in the operational state of the first satellite device, the second satellite device configured to establish a peering virtual node for execution of a software payload being executed as the first virtual node by the first satellite device, the peering virtual node incorporating at least portions of the state information received into the second satellite device for continuation of the execution of the software payload as the peering virtual node.

7. The orbital satellite clustering platform of claim 1, comprising:

the first satellite device comprising an inter-satellite communication element, and configured to transfer the state information for delivery to at least one peer satellite device configured as an orbital backup to the first satellite device.

8. The orbital satellite clustering platform of claim 1, comprising:

the second satellite device configured to receive the state information transferred by the first satellite device, the state information comprising data related to execution of one or more virtual nodes on the first satellite device; and

the second satellite device configured to establish execution of one or more further virtual nodes on the second satellite device in response to receiving the state information, the one or more further virtual nodes continuing at least one activity performed by the first satellite device indicated in the state information.

9. A method of operating a clustered orbital satellite platform, comprising:

in a plurality of satellite devices each comprising a communication interface and a virtualized execution system, executing software payloads deployed on the associated satellite device as virtual nodes;

in first satellite device, maintaining state information related to execution of a first virtual nodes on the first satellite devices and transferring the state information for delivery to at least a second satellite device; and

in the second satellite device, receiving associated state information transferred by ones of the first satellite devices and executing second virtual nodes in accordance with the state information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein at least the first satellite device and the second satellite device comprise one or more sensor systems communicatively coupled with the associated virtualized execution system over associated communication links, and comprising:

in the first satellite device, employing the one or more sensor systems of the first satellite to establish state information; and

in the second satellite device, employing the one or more sensor systems of the second satellite device to modify state information during execution of the second virtual node by the second satellite device.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein at least the first satellite device and the second satellite device comprise one or more imaging systems communicatively coupled with the associated virtualized execution system over associated communication links, and comprising:

in the first satellite device, employing a first imaging system to establish the state information related to imaging data captured by the first imaging system; and

in the second satellite device, employing a second imaging system to modify the state information with at least imaging data captured by the second imaging system.

12. The method of claim 11, comprising:

in the second satellite device, modifying the state information with at least the imaging data captured by the second imaging system to establish positional tracking of at least one ground-based object of interest.

13. The method of claim 11, comprising:

in the second satellite device, modifying the state information with at least the imaging data captured by the second imaging system by at least refining data analysis of the state information with at least the imaging data captured by the second imaging system in an object recognition process for at least one ground-based object of interest.

14. The method of claim 9, comprising:

in the second satellite device, monitoring an operational state of at least the first satellite device; and

in the second satellite device and responsive to detecting a fault in the operational state of the first satellite device, establishing a peering virtual node for execution of a software payload being executed as the first virtual node by the first satellite device, the peering virtual node incorporating at least portions of the state information received into the second satellite device for continuation of the execution of the software payload as the peering virtual node.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the first satellite device comprises an inter-satellite communication element, and wherein the method further comprises, in the first satellite device, transferring the state information for delivery to at least one peer satellite device configured as an orbital backup to the first satellite device.

16. The method of claim 9, comprising:

in the second satellite device, receiving the state information transferred by the first satellite device, the state information comprising data related to execution of one or more virtual nodes on the first satellite device; and

in the second satellite device, establishing execution of one or more further virtual nodes one the second satellite device in response to receiving the state information, the one or more further virtual nodes continuing at least one activity performed by the first satellite device indicated in the state information.

17. A satellite device, comprising:

one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media;

a processing system operatively coupled with the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media; and

program instructions stored on the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media to communicate state information with one or more secondary satellites that, when read and executed by the processing system, direct the processing system to at least;

execute software payloads deployed as virtual nodes;

receive state information from a second satellite device;

execute at least one virtual node in the virtual nodes in accordance with the second state information.

18. The satellite device of claim 17, wherein the program instructions direct the processing system to employ one or more sensor systems to modify the state information during execution of the at least on virtual node.

19. The satellite device of claim 17, wherein the program instructions direct the processing system to modify the state information with at least imaging data captured by the satellite device.

20. The satellite device of claim 17, wherein the program instructions direct the processing system to modify the state information with at least imaging data captured by the satellite device to establish positional tracking of at least one ground-based object of interest.