Technical analysis and engineering reference.
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) was built for a static world where Autonomous Systems (AS) connect over permanent undersea fiber cables or fixed terrestrial datacenters. When links flap, BGP dampening timers withhold routes for minutes to prevent internet-wide convergence storms. In Low Earth Orbit, inter-satellite links break and re-form every 10 to 45 minutes as satellites traverse orbital planes. If classic BGP dampening is applied, orbital routes become blackholed.
XhaulNetwork introduces scheduled orbital BGP extensions: - Integrating ephemeris orbital contact schedules directly into BGP OPEN and UPDATE message attributes. - Anticipated link state transitions are scheduled in advance, allowing alternative AS-paths to be pre-programmed into forwarding engines before the physical laser link terminates. - Eliminating route flapping penalties for expected orbital link switches.
Algorithms dynamically calculate AS-Path hops through space: evaluating whether routing through an orbital peer is faster than traversing congested terrestrial fiber transit, achieving true multi-domain traffic engineering.