Analysis of SINR Coverage in LEO Satellite Networks through Spatial Network Calculus

2025-11-11

AI Summary

Accurately evaluating SINR coverage performance in low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite networks remains challenging due to their spherical geometry and spatial correlations. Method: This paper proposes the first analytical framework for SINR coverage analysis based on spherical stochastic network calculus. It introduces a novel strongly constrained spherical point process to model the inherent spatial repulsion among satellites and extends stochastic network calculus—originally developed for Euclidean spaces—to the spherical domain. The framework jointly incorporates Nakagami-m and Rayleigh fading channel models. Results: It yields a computationally efficient, closed-form lower bound on the coverage probability with high accuracy. Validated against real Starlink constellation data, the bound exhibits negligible computational complexity and aligns closely with Monte Carlo simulations (SINR deviation ≈ 1 dB), significantly outperforming existing approximations. This work provides a scalable, tractable, and analytically rigorous tool for performance prediction of large-scale LEO constellations.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Scheduling under Uncertainty
• Search and Optimization: Evaluation and Analysis
• Machine Learning: Calibration & Uncertainty Quantification

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Social media analysis through the lenses of networks
• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Web performance, measurement, and characterization

Abstract

We introduce a new analytical framework, developed based on the spatial network calculus, for performance assessment of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks. Specifically, we model the satellites'spatial positions as a strong ball-regulated point process on the sphere. Under this model, proximal points in space exhibit a locally repulsive property, reflecting the fact that intersatellite links are protected by a safety distance and would not be arbitrarily close. Subsequently, we derive analytical lower bounds on the conditional coverage probabilities under Nakagami-$m$ and Rayleigh fading, respectively. These expressions have a low computational complexity, enabling efficient numerical evaluations. We validate the effectiveness of our theoretical model by contrasting the coverage probability obtained from our analysis with that estimated from a Starlink constellation. The results show that our analysis provides a tight lower bound on the actual value and, surprisingly, matches the empirical simulations almost perfectly with a 1 dB shift. This demonstrates our framework as an appropriate theoretical model for LEO satellite networks.

Problem

• Modeling satellite positions as regulated point process
• Deriving analytical coverage bounds under fading conditions
• Validating theoretical model against Starlink constellation data

Innovation

• Spatial network calculus models satellite positions
• Analytical bounds derived for coverage probabilities
• Low-complexity expressions enable efficient evaluation