Logical topology-based routing in LEO constellations

Rights ©2001 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE. Absfrucf-Satellite communication is distinguished by global coverage and the ability to support a wide range of applications. LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellite systems employing inter-satellite links offer rich connectiv-ity in space and provide direct broadband access and personal communication service. One of the technical challenges for LEO systems is the design of eMicient routing strategies tailored to their highly dynamic nature. In this paper, we present a new routing method which solves the routing problem effciently by overlaying a static logical topology over the physical constellation. The algorithm generates near-optimal shortest paths. The performance of our proposed scheme is evaluated through theoretical analysis and simulations.