LEO satellite constellations configuration based on the Doppler effect in laser intersatellite links

Abstract

This paper presents low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation configuration based on the performance of Doppler effect in laser intersatellite links (LISLs). It studies the impact of the LEO constellation's parameters on the performance of the Doppler effect in LISLs. The paper aims to develop LEO satellite constellation configurations that evolve LISLs with minimal Doppler shift. It evaluates the impact of the variation of the relative distance, the inclination angle of the LEO constellation orbital planes, the orbital planes number in the LEO constellation, and the altitude on the performance of Doppler wavelength shift (DWS) in LISLs, for different operating laser wavelengths (OLWs) with respect to two possible intersatellite links (ISL) connection modes within the constellation, straight ISL (n-to-n) and inclined ISL (n-to-n − 1). n is the order of the satellite in the orbital plane. Simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of these configurations in terms of altitude, OLW, inclination angle, and the number of orbital planes. In addition, both OneWeb and Starlink constellations are studied to evaluate DWS performance. The study demonstrates that DWS decreases either with the diminution of the relative distance between linked LEO satellites, the inclination of LEO constellation, and the OLW, or with the augmentation of the orbital planes number and altitude. Moreover, the overall DWS between two LEO satellites in the proposed constellation is at least 50% lower than the constellation configuration in other literature. The paper proposes the LEO constellation's configurations that perform LISLs with less possible Doppler effect by optimizing the LEO constellation parameters that impact the Doppler effect. The result of this study helps in the early stage of LEO satellite constellation designing in terms of payload simplicity and cost.