Space-Based Computing Networks: Trends, Architecture, Challenges, and Key Technologies
For the space remote sensing community, this work provides a systematic architecture and identifies key challenges for building space-based computing networks, but it is a conceptual/position paper without experimental validation.
This paper addresses the timeliness challenge of space data transmission by proposing a hierarchical space-based computing network architecture that enables on-orbit data processing, reducing transmitted data volume by orders of magnitude. It outlines the architecture, analyzes three scientific challenges, and discusses key technologies for future research.
As one of the most promising hotspots in the 6G era, space remote sensing information networks play a key and irreplaceable role in areas such as emergency response and scientific research, and are expected to foster remote sensing data processing into the next generation of killer applications. However, due to the inability to deploy ground communication stations at scale and the limited satellite-to-ground link rate, the traditional model for transmitting space data back to ground stations faces significant challenges in terms of timeliness. To address this problem, we focus on the emerging paradigm of on-orbit space data processing, which reduces the volume of transmitted data by several orders of magnitude to enable faster task response, taking the first step toward building a space-based computing network. Specifically, we propose a hierarchical space-based computing network architecture, comprising the space-based cloud constellation system, the remote sensing constellation system, the network operation control center, the orchestration data center, and the user access portal. Each component is described in detail from a system design perspective to clarify its specific role and functionality. Next, we analyze three scientific challenges: the heterogeneous resource virtualization and state information synchronization, the matching of multi-priority tasks with multidimensional resources, and the fault detection and localization under extreme conditions. Finally, we discuss key technologies to address the aforementioned challenges and highlight promising research priorities for the future.