A Cloud in the Sky: Geo-Aware On-board Data Services for LEO Satellites

TL;DR

This paper introduces a geo-aware on-board data infrastructure architecture for LEO satellites that utilizes blockchain technology to provide smart contract services, optimizing resource use and ensuring continuous ledger migration.

Contribution

It presents a novel architecture for satellite data services that integrates blockchain with geo-aware resource management, enabling efficient, continuous ledger migration in LEO constellations.

Findings

Blockchain processing overhead can be managed with dynamic geo-aware service areas.

The architecture supports efficient smart contract execution on LEO satellites.

Periodic ledger migration enhances system resilience and service continuity.

Abstract

We propose an architecture with accompanying protocol for on-board satellite data infrastructure designed for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations offering communication services, such as direct-to-cell connectivity. Our design leverages the unused or under-used computing and communication resources of LEO satellites that are orbiting over uninhabited parts of the earth, like the oceans. We show how blockchain-backed distributed transactions can be run efficiently on this architecture to offer smart contract services. A key aspect of the proposed architecture that sets it apart from other blockchain systems is that migration of the ledger is not done solely to recover from failures. Rather, migration is also performed periodically and continuously as the satellites circle around in their orbits and enter and leave the blockchain service area. We show in simulations how message and blockchain processing overhead can be contained using different sizes of dynamic geo-aware service areas.