This thesis work details the development of an automatic scheduling engine for
satellite communication from the operational stand point of a ground station. The
aim has been to create a scheduling engine that autonomously calculates passes
for a large number of satellites over a ground station and assigns these passes to
appropriate resources. The process used can be described as rule based scheduling,
where each satellite is assigned a set of specic requirements that the scheduler
tries to satisfy in order to create a schedule that satises all specied requirements.
This approach is in contrast to the most commonly used scheduling today, where
satellite operators request passes and ground stations try to satisfy these requests,
often manually. With rule based scheduling satellite operators are instead allowed
to set requirements and the pass times are chosen automatically so as to optimize
the process and admit a higher utilization of available resources. It is shown that
a typical utilization of a ground stations resources of about 60% can be achieved.
In addition to the scheduling engine a simple web interface has been developed,
allowing the control of all parameters and scheduling through a web browser, thus
demonstrating the ability to make this system more widely accessible for a broader
range of users. The development of a rule based scheduler illustrates the possibility
of making the process of satellite to ground communications more streamlined from
the part of the ground station while at the same time permitting an increase in
the number of passes it can support.