Reliable Low-Delay Routing In Space with Routing-Oblivious LEO Satellites

TL;DR

This work tackles delivering premium, low-latency connectivity over dynamic LEO satellite constellations by removing onboard routing computations and shifting path selection to ground stations. It introduces StarGlider, a routing-oblivious satellite system that validates source-routed packets and performs fast rerouting using a theory-driven, compact path-encoding scheme built from grids of intra- and cross-orbit links. The key contributions include the formal routing foundations for shortest paths in moving constellations, a tag-based path encoding and forwarding mechanism, and lightweight packet validation with strong security properties against compromised ground stations. The results show StarGlider achieves near-optimal backup paths, low overhead, and robust security against both single and multi-GS attacks, offering a practical approach to reliable, low-delay space-based routing with minimal satellite resources.

Abstract

Large networks of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are being built using inter-satellite lasers. These networks promise to offer low-latency wide-area connectivity, but reliably routing such traffic is difficult, as satellites are very resource-constrained and paths change constantly. We present STARGLIDER, a new routing system where path computation is delegated to ground stations, while satellites are routing-oblivious and exchange no information at runtime. Yet, STARGLIDER satellites effectively support reliability primitives: they fast reroute packets over near-optimal paths when links fail, and validate that packets sent by potentially malicious ground stations follow reasonable paths.

Figures (25)

• Figure 1: Schematization of a LEO satellite network supporting a wide-area premium service: path $(A1, B1, C1, C2, D2)$ provides lower delay than can be achieved with optical fibers.
• Figure 2: Illustration of a section of the torus formed by inter-satellite links (purple). Note that satellites' orbits are not perpendicular to the equator. Also, in reality, cross-orbit ISLs become longer when they get closer to the equator.
• Figure 3: StarGlider overview. The ingress satellite A1 validates the packet from GS X. Being next to the failed link (C1, C2), C1 reroutes the packet using path information in it.
• Figure 4: Schematization of a type-A $s$-$d$ grid. Note that cross-orbit links become longer as they get closer to the equator. For simplicity, the following figures visualize cross-orbit links as if they had the same length.
• Figure 5: Candidate shortest paths in grids moving in the same direction.

Theorems & Definitions (46)

• Theorem 1
• Theorem 2
• Theorem 3
• Theorem 4
• Theorem 5
• Theorem 6
• Theorem 7
• Lemma 1
• proof
• Lemma 2