Satellite telecommunications constellations in low Earth orbit (LEO) have moved from conceptual ideas to large-scale deployment. Systems such as Starlink [1], Eutelsat OneWeb [2], and Amazon Leo (formerly Project Kuiper) [3] exemplify the new paradigm in global telecommunications, where satellites play a central role.
Unlike geostationary (GEO) satellites, LEO systems offer many attractive communication attributes, including shorter propagation delays and reduced link budget requirements for user terminals. However, these advantages come with a significant challenge. While GEO satellites remain relatively fixed in the Earth-rotating reference frame, LEO satellites complete an orbit in roughly 90 to 120 minutes and travel at speeds of about 7.2 to 7.8 km/s, depending on their altitude. For architectures that employ inter-satellite links (ISLs), this rapid motion creates a network whose geometry, coverage, and feasible connectivity evolve continuously. This dynamic nature makes routing traffic through the mesh a complex and constantly changing problem.