You can find a detailed description of the RF system aboard the spacecraft here: https://web.pa.msu.edu/people/edmunds/Saturn/new_horizons_rf_system_2018.pdf ht

You can find a detailed description of the RF system aboard the spacecraft here: https://web.pa.msu.edu/people/edmunds/Saturn/new_horizons_rf_system_2018.pdf https://web.pa.msu.edu/people/edmunds/Saturn/new_horizons_rf... It's light on the details of any of the upper layers, but the vast majority of big-ticket government space missions use protocols developed by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS): https://public.ccsds.org/ https://public.ccsds.org/. CCSDS publishes a wide range of open standards that run the gamut from very high bandwidth links for LEO observation satellites all the way to very low-rate, robust delay-tolerant links for deep space. For an overview of the standards at a very high level, I suggest taking a look at CCSDS 130.0-G-3, "Overview of Space Communications Protocols": https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/130x0g3.pdf https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/130x0g3.pdf