Emulating Space Computing Networks with RHONE

The rapid advancement in satellite technology with the adoption of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices and satellite constellation networking has given rise to Space Computing Networks (SCNs). While SCN research is typically conducted on experimental platforms due to high operational costs, the unique challenges of SCNs — such as the harsh space environment (e.g., power and thermal constraints) and dynamic constellation networks — require special consideration. Existing platforms cannot fully replicate the SCN operating environment with high scalability. This paper introduces RHONE, an emulator that bridges these gaps by achieving both satellite- and constellation-level fidelity (the accurate replication of satellite and constellation states, including power, thermal, and network conditions, as well as application performance characteristics) while ensuring usability. RHONE adopts a two-phase emulation approach: i) an offline phase builds power, thermal, orbit, network, and computation models using real satellite telemetry data and hardware-in-the-loop chip mirroring, and ii) an online phase executes container-based emulation integrated with these models. Key components, the satellite COTS aligner and the satellite network aligner, dynamically align the containers with real satellite conditions. Evaluation shows RHONE’s scalability to 700 satellites on a single node, with power and computation model errors under 5% and thermal model errors within 1.3–2.5°C. Two case studies — satellite network energy drain attack and real-time earth observation application — demonstrate RHONE's capability to emulate satellite- and constellation-level dynamics.