At 12:12 on December 7, 2021, the world's first digital networking satellite node led by Professor Huang Gang's research group of Peking University was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center with the Baoyu satellite and successfully entered the scheduled orbit. After three months of commissioning and operation, the satellite node successfully connected the first batch of digital objects generated in space to Peking University ShuRui Internet of Data, which verified the connectivity and effectiveness of the satellite-ground link of the data network, marking the first step of the data network from the ground to space and the construction of a space-ground integrated digital space infrastructure.
Internet of Data is based on a software-defined approach, which connects various heterogeneous data platforms and systems through data-centric open software architecture and standardized interoperability protocols to form a "virtual/data" network on top of the "physical/machine" Internet. The mainstream technical architecture and standard system in the field of digital networking is the digital object architecture (DOA) proposed by Dr. Robert Kahn, winner of the Turing Award and inventor of the Internet TCP/IP protocol. Since 2018, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Nanjing University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and more than ten universities and research institutes have proposed the Digital Internet China Cloud solution, and led the formulation of a new version of the DOIP standard, one of the two basic protocols of DOA.
Relying on the Tiansuan Constellation Program of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, the launched digital networking satellite node successfully verified the software adaptability of the new version of DOIP protocol to various networks and communication protocols between satellite-ground links. It is reported that the second digital networking satellite node has been launched in February 2022, which will verify the adaptive communication of inter-satellite links between satellite nodes through ground data networking. It is expected that next year, the space environment verification of the complete technical system and system software of satellite data networking based on the direct satellite connection network will be carried out.
The development of digital networking satellite nodes has been supported by Guangdong Province Key Field Research and Development Program, Beijing University Outstanding Young Scientist Program, National Science Foundation for Outstanding Young Scientists and other projects.
