Poster: Orbital ZTA! Secure Satellite Communication Networks with Zero Trust Architecture

We develop a novel model, an orbital zero trust architecture (oZTA) across LEO satellite networks, under a recent cyber-security directive, which requires close coordination with commercial satellite communication (satcom) operators to fortify space against emerging threats. The proposed oZTA revolutionizes the traditional NIST ZTA by employing a modular approach that fully decouples the control plane from the data plane. In oZTA, control plane modules are transformed into an on-LEO Machine Learning Model (oLLM), which undergoes separate continuous on-board training in a leading LEO satellite before being passed to follower LEOs (transfer learning) for further refinement and aggregation; data plane modules remain locally trained within each LEO.