An Economic Evaluation Method for LEO Satellite Constellation Considering Revenue and Efficiency

Abstract

Considering the rapid development of space technol-ogy and the increasingly scarce spectral resources of terrestrial communication network, people redirect their view to broadband satellite communication. Recently, low orbit satellites have at-tracted wide attention and research because of their low latency, large capacity and less susceptibility to external environmental impact. The existing analysis of satellite constellation coverage and capacity has yielded many results, while many of which are based on the uniform distribution of ground users and mostly from the satellite supply side, ignoring the actual needs of ground users. However, from the point of view of commercial satellite communication, the profit of satellite constellation is of concern to operators. Therefore, we propose an evaluation method that considers the revenue capability and efficiency of constellation. The simulation results show that the constellation efficiency of Starlink is lower than One Web, while the revenue capacity is significantly higher. After we adjust the constellation structure of Starlink, the constellation efficiency and revenue capability has been improved.