Stochastic Geometry Framework for THz Satellite-Airplane Network Analysis

The THz frequencies (0.1–10 THz) have shown great potential for long distance satellite communications in the recent research papers. This band offers superior bandwidths compared to those enabled by the lower frequencies, with relaxed pointing requirements compared to optical systems, making the the THz band very appealing for providing backhaul connectivity on vast numbers of airplanes. At the same time, the path losses are very high and extremely directional antennas are required to operate on the links exceeding thousands of kilometers in the satellite applications. This paper derives a framework for stochastic geometry based estimation of average signal levels in THz satellite networks. Specific focus herein is on the airplane-satellite links. The produced stochastic models are shown to be exact with a simulation model. The analysis shows that while the average path losses are very high, there are antenna solutions that can overcome the losses and give respectable signal-to-noise ratios. The derived models are very useful in satellite network analysis, as well as in the link budget calculations for future high frequency satellite systems.