Window-Aware Access and Routing Coordination for Beam-Hopping LEO Satellite Networks

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a window-aware access and routing coordination (WA-ARC) approach for beam-hopping (BH) low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite networks. We formulate the joint BH access and routing design as a causal stochastic network optimization problem. To address this problem, we develop a Lyapunov drift-plus-penalty (DPP)-based online algorithm that introduces a window-aware service-deficit virtual queue, where resident packet support is capped by the scheduled service budget and only pre-window routed supply reduces the deficit. In particular, this algorithm decomposes into two components, including a frame-level access optimization and a slot-level routing subproblem. In addition, we provide a rigorous analysis of the algorithm, where a cost-backlog bound is established and the constant additive gap introduced by bounded access refinement is quantified. Simulations on a Starlink main-shell topology demonstrate the effectiveness of WA-ARC in packet delivery ratio, backlog, routing cost, robustness, scalability, and runtime.