Design and analysis of the satellite laser communications network

Abstract

A satellite laser communications network structure with two layers and multiple domains has been proposed, which performance has been simulated by OPENT. To simulation, we design several OPNET models of the network’s components based on a satellite constellation with two layers and multiple domains, as network model, node model, MAC layer protocol and optical antenna model. The network model consists of core layer and access layer. The core network consists of four geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites which are uniformly distributed in the geostationary orbit. The access network consists of 6 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites which is the walker delta (walk-δ) constellation with three orbit planes. In access layer, each plane has two satellites, and the constellation is stably. The satellite constellation presented for space laser network can meet the demand of coverage in the middle and low latitude by a few satellites. Also several terminal device models such as the space laser transmitter, receiver, protocol layer module and optical antenna have been designed according to the inter-satellite links in different orbits t from GEO to LEO or GEO to ground. The influence to network of different transmitting throughput, receiving throughput, network protocol and average time delay are simulated. Simulation results of network coverage, connectivity and traffic load performance in different scenes show that the satellite laser network presented by the paper can be fit for high-speed satellite communications. Such analysis can provide effective reference for the research of satellite laser networking and communication protocol.