Enabling Quality of Service over DTNs for Space Communications.

The increasing importance of space exploration is marked by the dozens of upcoming missions, and it has highlighted the need for a common and robust communication infrastructure. However, space communications face unique challenges that are not present in terrestrial communications. To address these issues, Delay- and Disruption-Tolerant Networks (DTN) and the Bundle Protocol (BP) were introduced. While DTN and BP are a great starting point, further enhancements are required for reliability and quasi-real-time communications. This work proposes extending BP to communicate about and allow for the optimization of Quality of Service (QoS) parameters, including latency, data loss, and jitter, crucial for satisfying the various communication needs between Earth and space. These contributions aim to enable future space communication capabilities, and to support ambitious projects such as the Solar System Internet.