Survivability and scalability of space networks: a survey

Survivability and scalability are key terms for any network. The challenge is greater in space networks than in terrestrial networks. Satellites have various uses, some notable uses are communication, observation, meteorology, navigation etc. In future satellites will aid terrestrial users by providing Internet connectivity. With proliferation of Internet users, demand for satellite services will increase and soon we will suffer from bandwidth limitation. Hence, the scalability and survivability of space networks are very important issues to ensure smooth connectivity to all the users both mobile and immobile. Since, most of the existing works on network survivability and scalability are focused on terrestrial networks. We have categorized the existing works on survivability and scalability of terrestrial networks. In addition, we have performed a comprehensive survey on the popular products available in the market for network survivability and scalability. Finally, we have listed the major issues and challenges of space networks that needs to be considered before applying network scalability and survivability solutions on them. This work can help network engineers to select suitable solutions for space networks considering the available choices and challenges listed in this paper.