[Starlink] leo-sat-net testbed

[J Pan]

Hello All: we are putting together a proposal for a leo-sat-net
testbed in canada (node locations due to funding constraints) but open
to the research community worldwide. are you interested in using such
a platform? your experience, feedback and comments are welcome too.
cheers.  -j

"2nd-generation low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite networks (LSNs),
exemplified by SpaceX’s Starlink, Eutelsat’s OneWeb, Amazon’s Project
Kuiper and Telesat (Canada)’s Lightspeed, promise to revolutionize the
Internet access around the world on all Earth surface and above. Thus
the research community has an urgent need to understand them
specifically and further improve LSNs in general. However, many
researchers are limited by the access to such systems due to
availability, location, financial and expertise constraints. With a
team of researchers across Canada specialized in computer networks,
distributed systems, satellite communications, security and privacy,
and cloud computing, this proposal builds a coast-to-coast-to-coast
LSN testbed for Canada, leveraging the team’s experience particularly
in building individual LSN test nodes and federating through remote
access, bootstrapping the team’s research in LSN performance,
reliability and security, and fostering collaboration in the research
community and with industry across Canada and beyond. Specifically,
the testbed will deploy at least one LSN testbed node in each province
and territory of Canada, ideally in north, remote and indigenous
regions, given the geo-diversity needed for LSN research. The testbed
nodes also provide Internet access to the hosts and their local
communities if needed, given the separate virtual local area networks
and end-to-end encryption without compromising user privacy, for at
least one year supported by the proposal with following years
supported by local initiatives through the economic development
enabled by the Internet access and external sponsorship. The testbed
will be remotely and centrally managed through the regional and
national centers hosted by the team, maximizing the uptime and utility
of all testbed nodes, and scheduling and prioritizing measurement and
test tasks submitted by researchers and collaborators within or beyond
the team, similar to what Planetlab contributed to the distributed
systems research in early 2000s. The testbed code and measurement data
will be open sourced and released to the research community, enabling
trace-driven simulation and statistical analysis worldwide, liberating
Internet access in general and specifically LSN research traditionally
limited to population centers and financially viable institutions.
With Canadian users at priority, the testbed will also federate with
other similar ones in the US and around the world, e.g., LEOScope led
by the University of Surrey, to have a true global coverage while
allowing international users to explore Canadian geographic and
demographic features, including those in arctic regions. The testbed
strives for self-sustainability after initial investment by providing
a leveled test range for LSN service providers to compete, a training
ground for highly qualified personnel for Canadian industry, and a
playground to attract K-12 and particularly indigenous kids to have a
technical career."
--
J Pan, UVic CSc, ECS566, 250-472-5796 (NO VM), Pan at UVic.CA, Web.UVic.CA/~pan