Supervisors

Suitable for

Abstract

The Deep Space Network Simulator (DSNS) is a network simulator capable of simulating large satellite networks and interplanetary networks, enabling protocol development and testing. In this project, you will build new features
for the simulator to enable an even wider range of research, and demonstrate its capabilities by building reference scenarios or designing new protocols.

This project can be taken in a number of directions:
• Optimising the simulator to improve performance and scalability, or facilitate easier development;
• Integrate DSNS with existing protocol definition schemes (e.g. SPACECOP, see reading material) to instantly enable a huge range of cryptographic protocols to be simulated on large-scale networks;
• Build a module to enable simulation of network links at the physical layer, enabling realistic jamming and overshadowing attacks;
• Integrate with formal verification tools to provide guarantees about security, taking network topology into account.

Interested students should be experienced at writing Python, and have some experience with network/communication protocols.

Relevant reading material:
• DSNS paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.04317
• DSNS source code: https://github.com/ssloxford/DSNS/
• Extensions of DSNS:
– “KeySpace” (PKI): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2408.10963
– Routing: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.10173
• “SPACECOP”: https://indico.esa.int/event/571/attachments/7210/13625/SPACECOP%20System%20for9