Approaching Movement-Aware Satellite Selection Method for Low-Earth-Orbit Satellite Networks

In recent years, Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) satellite networks, such as Starlink, have been advancing rapidly. However, it has been shown that Starlink may experience frequent variations in link quality due to handovers and other factors. Furthermore, since the communication process in Starlink is proprietary, only end-to-end verification has been conducted. The method used for satellite selection is still unclear. Therefore, this study simulates the current and future Starlink environments using the ns-3 LEO module and evaluates the effect of the satellite selection method on the communication performance in LEO satellite networks. We propose two satellite selection methods that lengthen communication time by considering the movement of available satellites. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed methods effectively increase the communication time provided by the selected satellite. The evaluation results indicate that the connected satellite should be selected by considering both the satellite altitude and the application requirements.