{"ID":22952733,"CreatedAt":"2026-09-17T02:12:05.498442134Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-09-20T18:11:56.143995915Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.18839","arxiv_id":"2609.18839","title":"A Distributed Computing Framework for Satellite Swarms","abstract":"The rise of large satellite constellations and Distributed Space Systems (DSS) demands generalized frameworks that enable fault-tolerant, autonomous distributed space applications. Conventional ground-centric command and control does not scale to systems of tens or hundreds of satellites, motivating the adoption of distributed computing. This paper introduces a conceptual distributed computing framework for satellite swarms, covering distributed state, command and control, and scientific mission. As a first validation step, a strongly eventually consistent distributed state service is designed and implemented using Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDT), specifically a Last-Write-Wins Register-based key-value store. The service is evaluated in the context of Space Situational Awareness catalog dissemination across a simulated 66-satellite constellation emulated with GoNetEm. Results show that the CRDT-based approach reduces ground-to-satellite communication from 66 messages to a single uplink per update, with tree traversal matching the total message count of direct uplink. Under concurrent updates, sub-linear inter-satellite message growth is observed as nodes discard outdated versions, further reducing network overhead. These results demonstrate the viability of a CRDT-based distributed state as a scalable and fault-tolerant foundation for satellite swarm applications.","short_abstract":"The rise of large satellite constellations and Distributed Space Systems (DSS) demands generalized frameworks that enable fault-tolerant, autonomous distributed space applications. Conventional ground-centric command and control does not scale to systems of tens or hundreds of satellites, motivating the adoption of dis...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.18839","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.18839v1","authors":"[\"Ezra Fielding\",\"Clement Demazure\",\"Guthemberg Silvestre\",\"Felipe Alves Suana\",\"Philippe Quéinnec\"]","published":"2026-09-16T15:46:06Z","proceeding":"cs.DC","tasks":"[\"cs.DC\",\"cs.NI\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}