Comparison of LEO satellite constellation systems for global broadband communications
TL;DR
The integrated performance index shows that low altitude, high-density constellations achieve superior overall performance under latency sensitive scenarios, with Starlink ranking highest due to its reduced delay and high spatial density.
Abstract
This paper introduces a quantitative framework designed to evaluate and compare Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations for global broadband communications. The analysis considers four representative systems: Starlink, OneWeb, Telesat, and Amazon’s Project Kuiper, capturing both orbital configuration and network architecture as key design characteristics. The proposed methodology integrates a geometric coverage model together with a latency formulation that accounts for propagation delay and routing effects including Inter-Satellite Links (ISL). In addition, a service density metric is introduced to characterize the spatial distribution of satellites and its impact on system capacity. These metrics are combined into a normalized multi-criteria performance index, allowing a consistent and reproducible system-level comparison. The results reveal that, while coverage is primarily governed by orbital altitude, network architecture plays a dominant role in effective latency, with ISL-enabled constellations achieving improved routing efficiency compared to bent-pipe designs. The integrated performance index shows that low altitude, high-density constellations achieve superior overall performance under latency sensitive scenarios. Starlink ranking highest due to its reduced delay and high spatial density. Project Kuiper exhibits balanced performance across all metrics, while OneWeb and Telesat are constrained by higher latency and lower density despite their broader coverage.