Reliable Low-Delay Routing In Space with Routing-Oblivious LEO Satellites

Abstract: Large networks of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are being built using inter-satellite lasers. These networks promise to offer low-latency wide-area connectivity, but reliably routing such traffic is difficult, as satellites are very resource-constrained and paths change constantly. We present STARGLIDER, a new routing system where path computation is delegated to ground stations, while satellites are routing-oblivious and exchange no information at runtime. Yet, STARGLIDER satellites effectively support reliability primitives: they fast reroute packets over near-optimal paths when links fail, and validate that packets sent by potentially malicious ground stations follow reasonable paths.