New IP Based Semantic Addressing and Routing for LEO Satellite Networks.

This document proposes a method of addressing and routing for massive Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations. It is based on the concepts and technologies of New IP. LEO satellite networks can be used for Internet access and for the Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) integration with 5G and beyond. Our new addressing method leverages the characteristics of satellites with known orbit elements; and simplifies the satellite identification by using limited indexes. The new routing method combines semantic addressing with source routing and generates a new semantic routing scheme. Compared with traditional methods, the new proposal dramatically reduces the workload in satellite, such as table size, TCAM (Ternary Content-addressable Memory) lookups, and packet header size. Thus, it is more suitable to network in space where the harsh environment will restrict the hardware performance, power consumption, link bandwidth and system complexity.