Publications Journal article · Delay-tolerant networks · 2026

Joint Contact Planning for Navigation and Communication in GNSS-Libration Point Systems

Huan Yan, Juan A. Fraire, Ziqi Yang, Kanglian Zhao, Wenfeng Li, Xiyun Hou, Haohan Li, Yuxuan Miao, Jinjun Zheng, Chengbin Kang, Huichao Zhou, Xinuo Chang, Lu Wang, and Linshan Xue

IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 75, no. 5, pp. 8565–8580, 2026

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Abstract

Deploying satellites at Earth–Moon Libration Points (LPs) addresses the inherent deep-space coverage gaps of low-altitude GNSS constellations. Integrating LP satellites with GNSS into a joint constellation enables a more robust and comprehensive Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) system, while also extending navigation and communication services to spacecraft operating in cislunar space (i.e., users). However, the long propagation delays between LP satellites, users, and GNSS satellites result in significantly different link durations compared to those within the GNSS constellation. Scheduling inter-satellite links (ISLs) is a core task of Contact Plan Design (CPD). Existing CPD approaches focus exclusively on GNSS constellations, assuming uniform link durations, and thus cannot accommodate the heterogeneous link timescales present in a joint GNSS–LP system. To overcome this limitation, we introduce a Joint CPD (J-CPD) scheme tailored to handle ISLs with differing duration units across integrated constellations. The key contributions of J-CPD are: (i) introduction of LongSlots (Earth-Moon scale links) and ShortSlots (GNSS-scale links); (ii) a hierarchical and crossed CPD process for scheduling LongSlots and ShortSlots ISLs; (iii) an energy-driven link scheduling algorithm adapted to the CPD process. Simulations on a joint BeiDou–LP constellation demonstrate that J-CPD surpasses the baseline FCP method in both delay and ranging coverage, while maintaining high user satisfaction and enabling tunable trade-offs through adjustable potential-energy parameters. To our knowledge, this is the first CPD framework to jointly optimize navigation and communication in GNSS–LP systems, representing a key step toward unified and resilient deep-space PNT architectures.

Cite

DOI 10.1109/tvt.2025.3632905

BibTeX

@article{DBLP:journals/tvt/YanFYZLHLMZKZCWX26,
  author  = {Huan Yan and Juan A. Fraire and Ziqi Yang and Kanglian Zhao and Wenfeng Li and Xiyun Hou and Haohan Li and Yuxuan Miao and Jinjun Zheng and Chengbin Kang and Huichao Zhou and Xinuo Chang and Lu Wang and Linshan Xue},
  title   = {Joint Contact Planning for Navigation and Communication in GNSS-Libration Point Systems},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology},
  volume  = {75},
  number  = {5},
  pages   = {8565--8580},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.1109/tvt.2025.3632905}
}

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