Integrating Satellite Communications into Clusterduck Protocol
In 2019, Project OWL deployed 30 solar-powered Ducks called SolarDucks in three different locations in the island of Puerto Rico. In each location, these Ducks generated a mesh network where people can connect to them and submit a message. It also sends sensor and health data periodically throughout the day. All of this was happening without the need to recharge these devices because it was solar-powered. But a problem arose in the beginning of 2020. Puerto Rico was hit with powerful earthquakes stripping away power and internet communications from the already fragile infrastructure from Hurricane Maria. While the SolarDucks were still operating and transmitting messages throughout the network they could not publish the messages up into the cloud and into the OWL Data Management System (DMS). The reason is that PapaDucks needs an Internet connection to forward the messages to the DMS. However, the power outages took out the WiFi access points, so the messages had nowhere to go.
To make CDP more resilient, we needed to take it a step further by solving the issue of getting the messages to the cloud and into the DMS when Internet infrastructure goes down. Through research and development, the solution I came up with is to integrate satellites into the CDP.
The concept is that CDP will work normally as intended. When the PapaDuck receives a message, it will send it to the DMS using a WiFi connection. The moment when the PapaDuck cannot establish a connection to the Internet, the PapaDuck will evolve into a DishDuck, a Duck that can communicate with a satellite. It will send the messages to the satellite and when the satellite receives the messages, it will send the message back down to the DMS. It will continually send messages through the satellite until the PapaDuck regains Internet connection. To establish the connection with a satellite, we need to integrate the RockBlock 9603, a small form factor low power Short-Burst Data modem.
The RockBlock utilizes the Iridium Network, a network of 66 satellites in the Earth’s orbit that allows for devices to send Short-Burst Data. Using the Rockblock, the PapaDuck can bounce the data off one of the 66 satellites to the DMS when an internet connection is not available or goes down (Fig 1.2).
And it works! We applied the DishDuck in one of our recent deployments in space! The SpaceDuck was the payload that had the RockBlock in it and it was attached to a weather balloon. The goal was to launch the balloon and keep the connection locked in throughout the whole flight time. There was a ground station that was attached to a Yagi antenna to collect the packets that the SpaceDuck was sending. However, as it goes up and up, there might be a chance that SpaceDuck might lose connection with the ground station. That is when the DishDuck kicks in. The DishDuck will be sending data to the satellite so that if the SpaceDuck does lose connection, there is a backup to ensure that the data will still be received.
Watch the Full SpaceDuck Documentary
Now this makes the Ducks more resilient to unstable or crippling existing internet infrastructure taking the CDP a step further into making it a fully resilient network. Integrating the DishDuck will allow anyone to retrieve sensor data or emergency messages from anywhere globally without worrying that they will miss any emergency messages or sensor data readings due to failures in WiFi or LTE connectivity. As for some future work it is in our hopes that we can access cheaper and higher throughput satellites or even create a LoRa satellite service.
