A Framework for End-to-End Latency Measurements in a Satellite Network Environment

In this work, a precise method for measuring end-to-end (E2E) latency in satellite Internet Protocol (IP) networks is proposed. Latency (i.e., time delay) is considered a key parameter that affects the quality of service (QoS) and the performance of communication systems. This is more pronounced in the IP over Satellite. Metrics such as throughput and bandwidth performance of communication systems are dependent on latency, which also has a direct impact on other QoS metrics, such as Internet packet transfer delay and delay variation (or jitter). The upper limits of QoS objective performance metrics are defined by E2E latency for different QoS traffic classes in this environment. Therefore, there is a need to develop efficient methods for the accurate measurement of E2E latency in a satellite IP environment. Two case study scenarios were developed for satellite heterogeneous networks to measure the latency in a satellite IP network. Two geostationary satellite network services were used to compare the performance of the different scenarios and networks. The results demonstrate that at least 50% of the E2E latency is due to the processing and transmitting of IP packets over the satellite in both scenarios. Inconsistent latency behaviour was also observed from daily results at different times of the day, which may degrade performance of jitter sensitive applications.