A new model for satellite TT&C resource scheduling and its solution algorithm

A new model of complex independent set, which takes the satellite visible arcs as scheduling elements, is developed for the low-earth-orbiting satellite Tracking, Telemetry and Command (TT&C) resource optimization scheduling problem. This model can be separated into several mutual-restrained sub-problems. When ant colony optimization (ACO) approach is applied to solve the problem, the ant colony searches the feasible region of each sub-problem, and the local search strategy is introduced to improve the solution quality. The experiment results demonstrate that this algorithm possesses the capability to converge fast and generate optimal schedules; hence the utility of the TT&C resources is improved.