Achieving Resilient Communication for Self-Organizing Satellite Networks under Critical Conditions

In this paper, we study the survivability of satellite networks through self-organizing during disasters when numerous nodes fail. Upon revisiting the alternate relay and transmit (ART) scheme for buffer-aided multi-channel relay systems, our focus has expanded to consider the impact of path loss due to the positions of relay satellite nodes on system performance. The satellite relays are divided into two groups, with one group receiving information broadcast from the source while the other transmitting common messages to the destination via distributed beamforming in each time slot. Notably, the satellite relay nodes used for reception and transmission are determined without the need for instantaneous channel state information (CSI), which simplifies the implementation in dynamic satellite networks. Theoretical analysis of the achievable throughput of the proposed scheme is provided, along with approximate closed-form expressions. Simulation results are given to verify the theoretical analysis. Numerical results show that, compared to existing link selection policies, the fixed scheduling ART scheme significantly improves achievable throughput in self-organizing satellite networks with multiple channels.