| Satellite networks play a very important role in communication systems. Satellite networks can provide not only high bandwidth but also global coverage capability. They also support flexible and scalable network configurations.High performance routing is always a challenging problem in communication networks. The quality of routing will directly influence the performance of a whole communication network and the quality of communication. So do satellite communication networks. Because there are many distinct differences between terrestrial networks and satellite networks, routing protocols working in terrestrial networks do not fit in with satellite networks. Therefore it is necessary to develop a new routing protocol, which is tailored for satellite networks in consideration of their special characteristics.Firstly, this paper analyzes the characteristics of satellite networks and the difficulties of routing in satellite networks. A survey of routing algorithms for satellite networks, which are compared in detail, is also presented. Then the characteristics and scalabilities of link-state routing protocols for satellite networks are analyzed. Considering the characteristics of satellite networks, a novel satellite network routing protocol called SLSR (Satellite Link State Routing) is proposed. The protocol utilizes less resources and has shorter convergence time compared traditional link-state routing protocols. SLSR utilizes the"Time-Freezing"technique and the characteristic of satellite network topology changing periodically to improve routing performance. At last, by simulating SLSR using the network simulator OPNET, we demonstrate the performance of SLSR. The simulation results show that SLSR can solve the problem caused by the periodic breaking of satellite links and it can decrease communication overhead and convergence time to some extent. |
PDF Full Text Request