An Autonomous Reconfiguration Method for Satellite Constellation Network Systems

The satellite constellation is vast in scale with numerous nodes. Traditional software reconfiguration for satellite constellations requires individual reconfiguration for each node, leading to redundant software versions, heavy workloads, and low utilization of satellite visible segment. This paper addresses these issues by decoupling satellite parameters from software functions through satellite hardware and software settings, achieving satellite constellation uniformity of software versions. Furthermore, based on the satellite constellation network system, a “one-time upload, full-network reconfiguration” method is proposed, effectively tackling the challenges of software reconfiguration faced in traditional, especially giant satellite constellation. This approach allows for real-time reconfiguration of nodes outside satellite visible segment, significantly conserving valuable resources, reducing the workload for constellation reconfiguration, and enhancing efficiency. To ensure the safety and reliability of the reconfiguration process, the design of the autonomous rollback strategies ensures that satellites can continue to work normally even in a reconfiguration failure, thereby increasing the reliability of on-orbit reconfiguration.