Starlink in Northern Europe: A New Look at Stationary and In-motion Performance

TL;DR

This paper addresses the gap in understanding Starlink's Flat High Performance (FHP) terminal performance in Northern Europe by conducting a dual-mode (stationary and in-motion)measurement campaign in Finland. It combines a state-of-the-art literature review with extensive field measurements of RTT, bi-directional throughput, and routing using iPerf3, Ping, and traceroute, and compares Starlink against terrestrial RTT paths. The findings show that FHP delivers high-speed, low-latency connectivity but exhibits throughput fluctuations during mobility due to LOS obstructions and environmental factors, while remaining viable for many applications; a public dataset supports reproducibility and further analysis. The work provides actionable insights into mobility performance, routing behavior, and geospatial effects, informing deployment strategies and future research, including ML-based throughput prediction and multi-network integration.

Abstract

Starlink has introduced the Flat High Performance (FHP) terminal, specifically designed to support the vehicles and the vessels in motion as well as the high-demand stationary users. The research on FHP terminal throughput analysis remains limited, only a few existing studies evaluate FHP, focusing on the limited parameters and scenarios. This paper evaluates the FHP terminal's performance in Finland, Northern Europe. We examine round-trip time (RTT), uplink, and downlink throughput for both stationary and in-motion use. We measure network efficiency across six geographically diverse servers and get insights of network routing strategies. Our results show that Starlink provides high-speed, low-RTT connectivity, however, the throughput experiences fluctuations with slight degradation when in motion. Additionally, we compare Starlink and terrestrial network RTT and possible routing paths.

Figures (8)

• Figure 1: Ford Ranger vehicle with installed Flat High Performance terminal.
• Figure 2: Experimental setup illustration.
• Figure 3: Comparison of the number of hops (left) over the route and round-trip time (right) for terrestrial (top) and Starlink (bottom) networks from Oulu to six iperf3 servers located in (i) Oulu; (ii) Helsinki; (iii) Amsterdam; (iv) Reykjavík; (v) Frankfurt and (vi) New York.
• Figure 4: Obstruction Map of the two test locations (a) Botanical Garden and (b) VTT where blue color shows the clear LOS and red dots indicate blockages.
• Figure 5: Starlink downlink and uplink throughput from four different test locations in Oulu to iperf3 servers in Finland.