Better Fill Up Your Pipe - Revisiting Starlink's Burst Characterization
Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: We present a comprehensive analysis of Starlink's physical layer performance based on a year-long UDP measurement campaign. Building upon a known methodology, we replicate and improve the approach to capture frame-level data rates with high granularity, identifying discrete modulation steps, and proposing an improved modulation model. Our approach reveals distinct symbol allocation patterns and validates modulation schemes ranging from robust low-order to higher-order Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). The findings provide a foundation for further research into the influence of environmental and network conditions on link performance. Additionally, we offer an open dataset to support ongoing studies of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks.
Authors: Till Zimmermann, Eric Lanfer, Dominic Laniewski, Simon Brinkmann, Nils Aschenbruck
Institution: Osnabrück University
Language: English
Subfield: Aerospace Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4413311744