Satellite edge computing for real-time and very-high resolution Earth observation

In high-resolution Earth observation imagery, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites capture and transmit images to ground to create an updated map of an area of interest. Such maps provide valuable information for meteorology and environmental monitoring, but can also be employed for real-time disaster d...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Leyva-Mayorga, Israel, Martínez Gost, Marc|||0000-0003-0070-6807, Moretti, Marco, Pérez Neira, Ana Isabel|||0000-0003-4281-3934, Vázquez Oliver, Miguel Ángel, Popovski, Petar, Soret, Beatriz
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/394188
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/394188
https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TCOMM.2023.3296584
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Energy consumption
Artificial satellites in earth sciences
Earth observation
Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
Satellite communications
Satellite imagery
Satellite mobile edge computing (SMEC).
Energia -- Consum
Satèl·lits artificials en ciències de la terra
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria de la telecomunicació::Radiocomunicació i exploració electromagnètica::Satèl·lits i ràdioenllaços
Descripción
Sumario:In high-resolution Earth observation imagery, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites capture and transmit images to ground to create an updated map of an area of interest. Such maps provide valuable information for meteorology and environmental monitoring, but can also be employed for real-time disaster detection and management. However, the amount of data generated by these applications can easily exceed the communication capabilities of LEO satellites, leading to congestion and packet dropping. To avoid these problems, the Inter-Satellite Links (ISLs) can be used to distribute the data among multiple satellites and speed up processing. In this paper, we formulate a satellite mobile edge computing (SMEC) framework for real-time and very-high resolution Earth observation and optimize the image distribution and compression parameters to minimize energy consumption. Our results show that our approach increases the amount of images that the system can support by a factor of 12× and 2× when compared to directly downloading the data and to local SMEC, respectively. Furthermore, energy consumption was reduced by 11% in a real-life scenario of imaging a volcanic island, while a sensitivity analysis of the image acquisition process demonstrates that energy consumption can be reduced by up to 90%.