The forecasted volume of satellite support contact requests for the Air Force Satellite Control Network (AFSCN) is expected to sharply rise in the near future. In order to meet this demand, the AFSCN will have to increase its capacity. An innovative new antenna design, the geodesic dome phased array antenna (GDPAA), has the potential to significantly increase the AFSCN capacity when deployed. However, this new antenna design has characteristics that dramatically increase the complexity of scheduling satellite support contact requests. The promise of increased capacity may not be realized unless an effective method for scheduling these new antennas is developed. Furthermore, since it is likely that not all of the old antennas will be replaced, the scheduling method will still have to work for them too. We propose to develop and test a parallelizable hybrid algorithm to derive near-optimal AFSCN scheduling solutions quickly in a hierarchical distributed architecture and to demonstrate these solutions in an AFSCN emulation that we will develop for that specific purpose.
Benefit: The Air Force Satellite Control Network (AFSCN) is a global network of ground stations and control centers that provide satellite operations services to select Department of Defense, National Security element, and allied and civilian satellites. The current network is reaching capacity and adding the geodesic dome phased array antennas is crucial to increasing the capacity of the AFSCN. Developing the automated scheduling system proposed herein is, in turn, crucial to the successful deployment of the GDPAA. In addition, the scheduling and management technology needed for this system could be applied to other space-based and mobile networks such as those operated by NASA, DoD, and our allies.
Keywords: Afscn, Scheduling, Phased Array Antenna, Satellite, Hybrid Algorithms
