Broadband Internet Access via Satellite: Performance Measurements with different Operators and Applications

Fast and reliable broadband Internet access is essential, which was emphasized even more during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Still, many locations do not have access to terrestrial broadband Internet access. Satellite communication provides area-wide coverage with high data rates. Europe is served by several geostationary satellites and the new Starlink megaconstellation in low Earth orbit is available since recently. This paper summarizes the findings of our comprehensive study in which we evaluated the performance of different applications over different Internet access technologies, with focus on Internet access via satellite. Four geostationary satellite providers, the Starlink megaconstellation, and two terrestrial access links (DSL and LTE) were selected. Results show that satellite communication provides fast and reliable Internet access. The high latency of geostationary satellite links is problematic for some applications, especially interactive applications and virtual private networks. The Starlink low Earth orbit megaconstellation is able to perform as good as terrestrial Internet access technologies.