What Obstructed Skies Teach Us About Satellite Internet

Low Earth Orbit satellite networks can extend Internet connectivity to remote areas where traditional broadband infrastructure is unavailable. However physical obstructions, e.g., dense forest cover, can interfere with satellite communication by blocking the user terminal’s line of sight to the satellite constellation. Unfortunately the impact of such obstructions on the connectivity of user terminals is not well studied. We bridge this gap by conducting an experimental study of how physical obstructions influence satellite network connectivity. Through controlled experiments using a purpose-built hardware testbed, we quantify the performance degradation caused by physical obstructions to user terminals. Our results show that obstructions increase round-trip latency by an average of 4% and packet loss by 0.3%. Obstructions cause user terminals to connect to a different satellite than the unobstructed terminal approximately 15% of the time. We find evidence of a previously undocumented adaptive mechanism we call responsive routing, where the satellite network switches obstructed terminals to alternative satellites within the standard 15-second interval between typical handovers. Our data is publicly available as supplementary material to this article.