SPICE Testbed: A DTN Testbed for Satellite and Space Communications

This paper presents SPICE testbed, a state-of-the-art Delay Tolerant Networking testbed for satellite and space communications deployed at the Space Internetworking Center, Greece. The core of the testbed relies on the Bundle Protocol and its architecture has been designed to support multiple DTN implementations and a variety of underlying and overlying protocols. SPICE testbed is equipped with specialised hardware components for the accurate emulation of space links and ground stations, such as Portable Satellite Simulator (PSS) and CORTEX CRT system, as well as protocols and mechanisms specifically designed for space DTNs. Performance and functionality evaluations on SPICE testbed show that it is an ideal platform to evaluate new mechanisms in a variety of space communication scenarios.