SateLight: A Satellite Application Update Framework for Satellite Computing

Abstract: Satellite computing is an emerging paradigm that empowers satellites to perform onboard processing tasks (i.e., \textit{satellite applications}), thereby reducing reliance on ground-based systems and improving responsiveness. However, enabling application software updates in this context remains a fundamental challenge due to application heterogeneity, limited ground-to-satellite bandwidth, and harsh space conditions. Existing software update approaches, designed primarily for terrestrial systems, fail to address these constraints, as they assume abundant computational capacity and stable connectivity. To address this gap, we propose SateLight, a practical and effective satellite application update framework tailored for satellite computing. SateLight leverages containerization to encapsulate heterogeneous applications, enabling efficient deployment and maintenance. SateLight further integrates three capabilities: (1) a content-aware differential strategy that minimizes communication data volume, (2) a fine-grained onboard update design that reconstructs target applications, and (3) a layer-based fault-tolerant recovery mechanism to ensure reliability under failure-prone space conditions. Experimental results on a satellite simulation environment with 10 representative satellite applications demonstrate that SateLight reduces transmission latency by up to 91.18% (average 56.54%) compared to the best currently available baseline. It also consistently ensures 100% update correctness across all evaluated applications. Furthermore, a case study on a real-world in-orbit satellite demonstrates the practicality of our approach.