Academic Reading and Writing | HS-115 | Miss Aqdus Abdul Rasheed

Starlink Satellite and

Internet System
Technical Report | Spring Semester 2023

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Fizza Rasool TC-002
Hadeed Rajput TC-024
Huzaif Sami TC-026

Table of Content:
1. Abstract 3
2. Introduction 3
2.1 How does Starlink work? 3
2.2 Objective 3
2.3 How fast Starlink’s Internet speed? 4
2.4 How much does Starlink cost? 4
2.5 Where is Starlink available? 5
2.6 How to connect to Starlink? 5
2.7 How many Starlink satellites are in space? 6
3. Literature Review 6
4. Discussion 10
5. Conclusion 11
6. References 11

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 1. ABSTRACT:
This study discusses several features of the Starlink satellite constellation system and its
significance in the context of global internet access. It highlights Starlink's objectives, execution,
and distinctive features, such as its endless coverage, high-speed internet services, and easier
installation process. The research goes on to discuss Starlink's potential for strengthening cyber-
physical power systems (CPPS) in remote places and under extreme conditions, emphasising its
low latency and stable connection characteristics. The discussion also includes a techno-
economic study of wireless networks, with a focus on 5G infrastructure deployment and
unorthodox techniques for expanding internet coverage. It also proposes a techno-economic
cost framework for satellite networks, with a focus on low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations, to
address shortcomings in satellite broadband assessment.

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2. INTRODUCTION: The Starlink satellite constellation system promises to provide global internet
connectivity. This technique is appropriate for rural and geographically isolated places where internet
access is intermittent or non-existent. Starlink, a SpaceX attempt to build a worldwide broadband
network, provides high-speed internet services via a constellation of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites.
SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is a privately held rocket and spacecraft business
founded by Elon Musk in 2002.

2.1 How does Starlink work?

Starlink uses satellite internet service technology that has been around for decades. Instead than
employing cable technology like fibre optics to deliver internet data, a satellite system sends radio
signals across space. Ground stations send signals to satellites in orbit, which then transfer the

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information to Starlink users on Earth. The Starlink constellation's satellites weigh 573 pounds and has a
flat shape. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket can accommodate up to 60 satellites.

2.2 Objective: Starlink's goal is to build a low-latency network in orbit that will enable edge computing
on Earth. The task of building a worldwide network in space is not easy, especially given the importance
of low latency. To address this need, SpaceX has suggested a constellation of over 42,000 tablet-sized
satellites circling the globe in low orbit. CubeSats, which are small satellites often employed in LEO,
provide tight network coverage and low latency due to their low Earth orbit.
However, Starlink isn't the only contender in the space race and has a few competitors, including
OneWeb,

HughesNet, Viasat and Amazon. HughesNet has been providing signal coverage from 22,000 miles
above the Earth since 1996, but Starlink follows a slightly different approach and presents the following
improvements:

 Instead of using a couple of large satellites, Starlink uses thousands of small satellites.

 Starlink uses LEO satellites that circle the planet at only 300 miles above surface level. This
shortened geostationary orbit improves internet speeds and reduces latency levels.

 The newest Starlink satellites have laser communication elements to transmit signals between
satellites, reducing dependency on multiple ground stations.

 SpaceX aims to launch as many as 40,000 satellites in the near future, ensuring global and remote
satellite coverage with reduced service outages.

 Starlink has the advantage of being part of SpaceX, which in addition to launching Starlink satellites,
also conducts regular partner launches. Other satellite internet providers may not be able to
schedule regular satellite launches due to the high-cost factors involved

2.3 How fast are Starlink's internet speeds?

Starlink provides unlimited high-speed data via a network of tiny satellites that can deliver up to 150
Megabits per second (Mbps). SpaceX intends to more than increase this rate in the following months.

According to a recent Ookla Speedtest, Starlink had the fastest median download speed in Lithuania in
the first quarter of 2022, at 160 Mbps. Starlink also achieved 91 Mbps in the United States, 97 Mbps in
Canada, and 124 Mbps in Australia. With a median download speed of 105.91 Mbps, Starlink in Mexico
was the fastest satellite internet provider in North America. The Speedtest also indicated that upload
speeds in the United States had dropped by at least 33%, from 16.29 Mbps in the first quarter of 2021 to
9.33 Mbps in the second quarter of 2022.

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According to Starlink's website, it offers high speeds and latency as low as 20 milliseconds in most
locations.

2.4 How much does Starlink cost?

Starlink offers the following three internet packages:

 Starlink Internet. This package is geared toward residential use and costs $110 per month plus a
one-time charge for the hardware of $599.

 Starlink Business. The business package provides twice the antenna capability of the residential
offering along with faster internet speeds. It costs $500 per month with a one-time equipment
charge of $2,500.

 Starlink RV. In June 2022, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission authorized SpaceX to use
Starlink with moving vehicles, including recreation vehicles, airlines, ships and trucks. So, people on
the road can now get access to the Starlink RV service for $135 per month plus $599 for the
hardware.

A user must input their address on Starlink's website to verify for service availability in their area before
requesting service. If the service is not yet accessible in their location, Starlink will provide an estimated
arrival date. The majority of consumers remain on the backlog for months, and most waitlists have been
extended until early 2023.

Starlink fills service requests on a first-come, first-served basis in coverage areas where service is
currently available. A buyer can secure a spot for service by preordering Starlink through their website,
which involves a $99 refundable deposit.

2.5 Where is Starlink available?

Starlink now serves 36 nations in locations with low coverage. In the United States, the business intends
to extend service to the remainder of the continental United States by the end of 2023. Although a few
nations, including Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, are noted as "Coming Soon" on Starlink's
coverage map, the company currently has no intentions to extend services to Russia, China, Cuba, or
North Korea.

The coverage map on the company's website shows where Starlink is available.

2.6 How to connect to Starlink?

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Users who sign up for Starlink receive a Starlink kit, which contains a satellite dish, a dish mount, and a
Wi-Fi router base unit. Starlink also includes a power cord for the base unit as well as a 75-foot wire to
connect the dish to the router.

To use the service, Starlink customers must first set up the satellite dish to start receiving the signal and
pass the bandwidth to the router. The company offers various mounting options for the dish, including
for yards, rooftops and home exteriors. There's also a Starlink app for Android and Apple iOS that
uses augmented reality to guide users in selecting the best location and position for their receivers.

2.7 How many Starlink satellites are in space?

As of July 24, 2022, SpaceX launched 53 satellites in what was the 33rd Starlink launch of 2022. This
follows a successful launch on July 22, 2022, in which 46 Starlink satellites were sent into orbit. So far,
the company has launched almost 3,000 satellites in low Earth orbit.
LITERATURE REVIEW:
The increasing development of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations has sparked worries among
astronomers about their potential impact on ground-based observations. One such constellation,
Starlink, launched by the American company SpaceX, has piqued the interest of many due to its size and
visibility. The first set of 60 Starlink prototype satellites, launched on May 24, 2019, alarmed amateur
and professional astronomers alike, as their brightness exceeded expectations, reaching magnitudes of
V 1 to 3 (King 2019).

The purpose of this letter is to discuss the ramifications of the Starlink satellite constellation and its
impact on the demography of low Earth orbit. The initial deployment of Starlink satellites, with their
distinctive features, aroused debate over their impact on optical observations and the possible obstacles
they represent to astronomical studies.

Celestrak 7 provided the two-line elements for all Starlink satellites on July 15, 2021 UTC. The viewing
opportunities on July 16, 2021 UTC were then determined by running each element through the JPL
Horizons ephemeris service 8 via an API. An initial selection was made for Starlink satellites that were
visible from DAO during the observing night, including astronomical twilight, had a maximum elevation
greater than 45°, and had a maximum elevation in the southern sky, with the latter being primarily a
telescope slewing consideration. During the three hours of useful night, this led in nearly 800 observing
opportunities.

All observations were made with a g' filter and 30 second exposures. To ensure that the satellite was
viewed as it passed across the Plaskett's 22' 11' (edge-to-edge on the CCD) FOV, each integration began
15 seconds before the central UTC time.

To ensure consistency, images were processed in two ways. The first method employed the Spaceguard
pipeline (Tatum et al. 1994), which includes bias subtraction, flat fielding, image flattening, and filtering
to remove image artefacts (e.g., hot pixels, cosmic rays, and so on). Using Gaussian fitting, source

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catalogues of all stars in the field are constructed for each image. Then, one of several astrometric
catalogues (Tycho2, PPM, Carlsberg Meridian Circle, USNO, and 2MASS) is searched.

Apparent Magnitude
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Number

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
mg

s v

Fig1: The magnitude distributions observed in this investigation for the Starlink satellites. Each satellite was viewed just once.
Apparent mg magnitudes, with blue representing the Starlinks contribution to each bin and red representing the Starlink-Vs
contribution.

According to McDowell (2018), LEO ranges from roughly 80–100 km to about 2000 km, over which it
becomes more challenging for satellites to operate due to the strength of the trapped radiation belts.
Current recommendations urge that space objects be removed from LEO within 25 years of the end of
operations (IADC 2007) in order to prevent collisional runaway (Kessler & Cour-Palais 1978). The
majority of satellites will reenter the atmosphere on this timeline below roughly 600 km without the
need for any particular intervention because of atmospheric drag.

The satellite populations in lower LEO (100-600 km) and upper LEO (600-2000 km) are qualitatively
different as a result of these differing lifetimes.

The initial constellation of 1584 satellites, which was modelled by Seitzer (2020) and approved by the
U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC; SpaceX 2016), has been replaced. The projected
constellation now includes over 12,000 satellites, according to additional FCC filings (SpaceX 2017,
2019). As many as 30,000 satellites are envisioned, according to documents submitted under the
USASAT-NGSO-3 name to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in October 2019, however
for the sake of this letter, I will focus only on the 12,000 satellite situation. Table 2 summarises the
constellation's field orbital characteristics by dividing the eight SpaceX-specified shells into three layers
of comparable altitude. Currently, just layer A satellites are being used, with anticipated levels B and C
expected in a few years.

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Next a simulation was run to determine how many of these satellites are lighted by the Sun as a
function of time of day and date. I simply count the number of satellites that are visible to the Sun at any
given moment rather than attempting to simulate the reflectivity of the satellite as a function of phase.

Three latitudes—a typical, densely populated northern location at 52N (London; Figures 6 and 7), a
typical, low density (resulting in a darker sky) southern location at 46S (Dunedin, New Zealand; Figures 8
and 9), and an astronomy-intensive location at 30S (Cerro Tololo, Chile; Figures 10 and 11)—as
representative examples for evaluating summer and winter seasons. The quantity of lighted satellites
above and below the horizon was considered.

The Starlink constellation has a significant impact on ground-based observations, with skilled observers
from amateur satellite observing club SeeSat3 monitoring most of the first batch of satellites visually in
the summer of 2019. The majority of the satellites were in the 550 km nominal orbit for the initial
constellation, with visual magnitudes ranging from 3 to 7, with the majority falling between visual mag
5.5 and 0.5. This corroborates press accounts that most satellites are visible to the unaided eye. The
effects of bright satellites moving into the field of view of expert ground-based observations, including
ghost pictures, electronic crosstalk, flat fields, and image streaks, have been explored by Seitzer (2020)
and Tyson (2020). Even non-illuminated satellites occulting celestial sources will occasionally experience
transient effects, with occultation times of around 20 ms for a 1'' viewing disc.

Space telescope observations from orbit can also be impacted by streaks. The 1100-1200 km layer B of
the Starlink constellation and the equivalent OneWeb constellation are expected to have effects on big
field-of-view observatories in lower orbits when deployed.

Industrial uses of cyber-physical power systems could be revolutionised by Starlink, a low-orbit wireless
communication system in space. The idea of a Starlink enhanced CPPS is put out. This enhanced CPPS
focuses on real-time measurement and control via links between communication modules on power
equipment that use data packets. As long as the transmission delay satisfies performance standards and
the economic cost is appropriate, the system can be wired in fibre or wireless in a hoover. The SpaceX
Phase I Starlink constellation is suitable for wide area measurement, protection, and control (WAMPAC)
applications in regions with poor network connections due to its low orbit and quick transmission speed
in vacuum. This allows for a small propagation delay difference between the constellation and terrestrial
optical fibre networks. The projected network for space.

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 Fig2: Proposed space network enhanced cyber-physical power system architecture.

An engineering-economic framework for a single LEO satellite network that can be modified for MEO or
GEO is called the Tecno-Economic Cost Framework for Satellite Networks. Users can access the model
code and modify it to work with different constellations thanks to the open-source software repository.

Applying the methodology to three LEO constellations from 2020-2025, including Starlink, OneWeb, and
Kuiper. The methodology assumes sufficient capacity between the ground station and satellites and that
the constellations have reached a crucial coverage point. The basic engineering parameters for the
simulation are obtained from ITU data, such as Kuiper satellite mass. The total bandwidth is multiplied
by the frequency reuse factor to achieve the final channel capacity (CMbps). The system's launch, like
Starlink's v1.0 satellites, uses the same frequency reuse factor.

PARAMETER Starlink Kuiper OneWeb

Simulated Satellites 5,040 720 3240
Satellite Mass 260 147.7 260
Downlink Frequency 13.5 13.5 13.5
Bandwidth 0.25 0.25 0.25
Channels 8 8 8
Aggregate Bandwidth 2 2 2

TABLE 1: Engineering Parameters by LEO Constellation

Here’s the engineering and financial outcomes of the proposed system, comparing OneWeb's 720
satellites to the first 1,000 satellites for Starlink and Kuiper. The system experiences the most loss and
signal received by users on the ground via the Frequency-Sensitive Pulse (FSPL). OneWeb and Kuiper
have higher route losses due to their higher orbital altitude and smaller minimum user elevation angle,

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while Starlink recorded the lowest mean FSPL of 172.4 0.05 dB. The network's low satellite density leads
to longer path distances. The received power for LEO satellites is significantly impacted by the FSPL, with
Kuiper having the highest received power, followed by Starlink and OneWeb.

Mean Capacity per Subscriber

1.2

1 1 1 1
Subscriber Density

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06
Mean Capacity

Fig3: Mean capacity by subscriber density

DISCUSSION:
The report provides an overview of the Starlink satellite constellation system, its functioning, objectives,
internet speeds, pricing, availability, and satellite count. The following discussion elaborates on key
points presented in the report and highlights their significance .

Starlink satellite constellation offers global internet connectivity through low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites,
aiming to improve speeds, reduce latency, and ensure global coverage, particularly in rural and isolated
areas. This technology bridges the digital divide and provides reliable internet access to underserved
communities. Starlink's low-latency network is crucial for edge computing, real-time data, and
applications requiring near-instantaneous communication. Unlike competitors like OneWeb, HughesNet,
Viasat, and Amazon, Starlink distinguishes itself through its larger number of small satellites in LEO, laser
communication between satellites, and its association with SpaceX. The company offers high-speed
internet services with median download speeds exceeding 100 Mbps in various countries.

Starlink's coverage is gradually expanding, with service available in 36 countries and plans to extend
coverage to the entire continental United States by the end of 2023. Users receive a Starlink kit
containing necessary equipment, and the installation process is simplified using a user-friendly mobile
app.

The study focuses on Starlink satellite viewing opportunities and brightness measurements. The study
used two basic ways to evaluate observation opportunities: collecting two-line elements from Celestrak
and using the JPL Horizons ephemeris service via an API. The satellites were chosen based on their
visibility from a certain location, maximum elevation more than 45 degrees, and maximum elevation in
the southern sky. During the three-hour night, this resulted in over 800 viewing opportunities.

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A "wait-and-catch" methodology was utilised due to the constraints of the Plaskett 1.8 m telescope,
which cannot track Low Earth Orbit (LEO) objects. The telescope was aimed at a field, which was being
tracked at the sidereal rate, and an exposure was taken to capture the satellite as it went by.

Moreover, the debate analyzes the US's catalogue of space objects and satellites using orbital data,
focusing on lower and upper LEO. The upper left quadrant is empty due to air drag. It then explores the
FCC-approved Starlink constellation and its potential extension. Simulations show satellite visibility and
coverage peak in latitudes between 48° and 54°, with early satellites visible from dark locations.

The Starlink space network has the potential to improve cyber-physical power systems (CPPS) in remote
areas and under abnormal conditions. It offers a small propagation delay difference, making it suitable
for wide area measurement, protection, and control (WAMPAC) applications with weak network
connections. The proposed concept introduces a space network layer in the existing CPPS architecture,
providing fast and reliable connection services. SC-PMUs, equipped with user terminals, can be mounted
anywhere with a clear view of the sky. The Starlink Internet service can be directly utilized with existing
communication protocols, making it feasible and promising for future implementation.

The discussion focuses further on the techno-economic analysis of wireless networks, especially in the
context of 5G. Previous research has mainly focused on 5G infrastructure deployment and services,
including strategies for delivering broadband Internet in rural and remote areas. Unconventional
methods, such as using high and low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), have been proposed for
rural, developing regions, and emergency situations. Some cellular companies suggest integrating UAVs
into terrestrial infrastructure to extend broadband coverage. Satellite broadband viability has been
assessed within a techno-economic framework, but often lacks per-user level metrics and sub-national
estimates. The paper introduces a techno-economic cost framework for satellite networks, specifically
focused on low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations, to address these limitations and provide a
comprehensive understanding of the techno-economic aspects in the context of LEO constellations.

CONCLUSION:
In a nutshell, the Starlink satellite constellation system is a disruptive player in global internet
connectivity, offering high-speed internet access with reduced latency in remote and underserved areas.
Its unique approach of using LEO satellites and laser communication technology sets it apart from
traditional providers. Starlink's scalability and network expansion make it an advantage over
competitors. With median download speeds exceeding 100 Mbps, Starlink bridging the digital divide and
providing reliable access to online resources and services. The system faces competition from
HughesNet, but its innovative approach and extensive coverage make it a significant player in the
evolving wireless network landscape. The Starlink system is the first of the megaconstellations to see
significant deployment in low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites less than 600 kilometres in altitude. Tens of
thousands of big satellites with a sky density of 0.01 per square degree at zenith will operate as sources
of reflected sunlight, impacting both ground-based and space-based measurements. The consequences
will be considerable for specific types of observations, observatories, and seasons. The study
investigates the inclusion of the Starlink space network into the current CPPS, proposing a three-layer
design and addressing implementation concerns. Simulations show the Starlink space network could
enhance communication, security, and reliability in large-scale power systems. Additional real-world test
cases, such as cyberattacks and hybrid AC/DC grids, will be considered.

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