Satellite Routing for mobile users under uncertainty in High Throughput constellations

In the past few years, the satellite communications landscape has undergone significant transformations, which increase the operational complexity of satellite systems. On one hand, the development of modern highly flexible payloads that provide the ability to adapt satellites’ resources to specific needs, together with reduced launch and manufacturing costs, provide satellite operators with increased capacity. On the other hand, new market segments such as in-flight connectivity have made the overall demand for satellite communications increase. Furthermore, demand has also changed its behavior, being more variable and unpredictable. Consequently, these new mobility segments entail new complexities due to their dynamic nature and uncertain behavior.The objective of this paper is to build upon current methods to address the satellite routing problem, which consists of mapping users to satellites, in the presence of mobile users with uncertain behavior. While previous literature addresses these type of users from the perspective of the frequency assignment (i.e., the assignment of frequency spectrum to users), previous routing literature does not fully address these type of users. First, we formulate the problem, including the characteristics of new mobility segments. Then, we propose strategies in two stages: pre-operations, involving an initial plan based on users’ trajectories and schedule estimates using probabilistic constraints, and real-time adjustments during operations based on updated information.Our approach, tested with Eurocontrol flight data, allows us to regulate the degree of conservativeness and control a trade-off between drop time and capacity, having a maximum reduction on the former of 11.68% but an increase on the latter by 11.85%. When combining satellite routing with frequency assignment strategies, we successfully serve 99.7% of the users, compared to just 84.4% users served in the baseline, with a minor increase in power consumption in the satellite constellation.