Capacity Analysis of Multi-layer Satellite Networks

The development of satellite networks is drawing much more attention in recent years due to the wide coverage ability. Composed of geosynchronous orbit (GEO), medium earth orbit (MEO), and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, the satellite network is a three-layer heterogenous network of high complexity, for which comprehensive theoretical analysis is still missing. In this paper, we investigate the capacity performance of the three-layer heterogenous satellite network. We first construct the network model and the capacity model of the network with detailed design of the network parameters. Then, taking time structure into account, we propose a time structure based augmenting path searching method, which can significantly reduce the computing complexity. Finally, based on the model and method proposed, we analyze the capacity performance of the three-layer heterogenous satellite network with numerical results.