SatScope: A Data-Driven Simulator for Low-Earth-Orbit Satellite Internet

Qichen Wang, Guozheng Yang (), Yongyu Liang, Chiyu Chen, Qingsong Zhao and Sugai Chen
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Qichen Wang: Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cyberspace Security Situation Awareness and Evaluation, Hefei 230037, China
Guozheng Yang: Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cyberspace Security Situation Awareness and Evaluation, Hefei 230037, China
Yongyu Liang: Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cyberspace Security Situation Awareness and Evaluation, Hefei 230037, China
Chiyu Chen: Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cyberspace Security Situation Awareness and Evaluation, Hefei 230037, China
Qingsong Zhao: Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cyberspace Security Situation Awareness and Evaluation, Hefei 230037, China
Sugai Chen: Teaching and Research Support Center, Space Engineering University, Xi’an 710025, China

Future Internet, 2025, vol. 17, issue 7, 1-23

Abstract: The rapid development of low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite constellations has not only provided global users with low-latency and unrestricted high-speed data services but also presented researchers with the challenge of understanding dynamic changes in global network behavior. Unlike geostationary satellites and terrestrial internet infrastructure, LEO satellites move at a relative velocity of 7.6 km/s, leading to frequent alterations in their connectivity status with ground stations. Given the complexity of the space environment, current research on LEO satellite internet primarily focuses on modeling and simulation. However, existing LEO satellite network simulators often overlook the global network characteristics of these systems. We present SatScope, a data-driven simulator for LEO satellite internet. SatScope consists of three main components, space segment modeling, ground segment modeling, and network simulation configuration, providing researchers with an interface to interact with these models. Utilizing both space and ground segment models, SatScope can configure various network topology models, routing algorithms, and load balancing schemes, thereby enabling the evaluation of optimization algorithms for LEO satellite communication systems. We also compare SatScope’s fidelity, lightweight design, scalability, and openness against other simulators. Based on our simulation results using SatScope, we propose two metrics—ground node IP coverage rate and the number of satellite service IPs—to assess the service performance of single-layer satellite networks. Our findings reveal that during each network handover, on average, 38.94% of nodes and 83.66% of links change.

Keywords: LEO satellite internet; network measuring; network simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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