Low Latency Routing in Space

This constellation should have lower latency over long distance than is even theoretically possible using terrestrial fiber, because the speed of light in space is substantially better than the speed of light in fiber. [0] Even over short distance the latency (which the "Legal Narrative" pdf quotes as 15ms) is negligible for almost all applications. [0] paper [LINK] / video [VIDEO]

There were recently two simulations done on possible latencies based on the FCC filings. You can find the video simulations in the links at the bottom of this post. You can see international links that have latencies lower than the existing internet by a significant margin. Unfortunately neither of those simulations take into account that the first iteration has been changed to only use radio and no laser links. [0]: [VIDEO] [1]: [LINK]

This video [0] really puts into perspective what SpaceX is trying to accomplish. Incredible stuff if they pull it off! [0] [VIDEO]

First, check out the video explaining the orbits: [VIDEO] Doing some quick math, the shell in which they'll be orbiting has a surface area of 373,367,808km. With ~7000 satellites, an even distribution would leave them 533,382 km between satellites. All the satellites have station keeping thrusters to keep them in LEO with drag. Keeping them from running into each other is probably pretty simple, in comparison to the other challenges they'll need to solve.

The first video mentions at 6m55s[1] that as part of the third phase they're deploying satellites in high inclination orbits, among other reasons to provide coverage for Alaska, since this is an FCC requirement. I wonder if it's exclusively because of that reason, and if so that the reason international customers will enjoy coverage at high northern and southern latitudes is because of the accident of history that the US ended up acquiring Alaska, and that there's some FCC regulation that says you need to provide coverage for all 50 states. 1. [VIDEO]

There was recently a video posted theorizing this here: [VIDEO] Very interesting watch. Based off the paper: [LINK]

An individual over at the /r/spacex subreddit did some simulations with what a LEO constellation would allow for latency reduction and improved routing (beyond your own continent) [VIDEO]

I really recommend watching this simulation of how the Starlink Constellation would massively cut global internet latency: [VIDEO]

Latency, yes: [LINK] with a nice video of the simulation here: [VIDEO] and a bunch of vidoes that include updated information here: [LINK] Bandwidth, not to my knowledge. As the nice paper above says its too speculative. Nothing official.

My understanding is it's tough to beat point to point microwave arrays for directness in a lot of cases, they're already pretty close to the straightline path between some locations. The same is basically true for the longer range low bandwidth links that curve around the Earth. Starlink is at a disadvantage because fundamentally it's pathing across a sphere with a larger radius so even when the path is direct across the Starlink cluster it still has to traverse a longer distance than the equivalent path on the ground. Adding to that the path won't always be directly across the surface of the constellation, depending on where you are and where the destination is you'll find some pockets where the link has to zig zag across the constellation slightly adding to the additional link distance. This [0] isn't necessarily a perfect representation but it does show how starlink's linking may work and how it's not a perfect net. It also doesn't account for the acquisition times for new laser links which were on the order of 20 seconds in another laser sat link test. [0] [VIDEO] (it's also comparing fiber to Starlink where the best in class now is radio links generally)

This video goes a bit into the probable topology of the links and gives a good look at how the eventual constellation would look. Eventually in the full constellation there will be 4 easy links to the birds in front, behind, left and right, those 4 will stay in largely the same relative position until they reach the highest latitude of their orbit. Those alone will make an ok link with a bit of a zig zag. The tough ones are those ~180 degrees out of phase those will be crossing roughly perpendicular and at a really high speed. [VIDEO]