Satellite constellations for a multiple LEO satellite network

Recently, research has been very active in communication networks that could service the entire globe by using multiple, low, earth-orbiting satellites. This has been spurred on by progress in the field of digital communication technique, technical advances of satellite launching, and a decrease in the costs of small-sized satellites. In this paper, the construction of low, earth-orbiting satellite communication networks is discussed from the viewpoint of the design of orbits and satellite positions. First, a symmetric orbit model derived from the idea of regular dodecahedron is proposed. Next, two evaluation methods of satellite distribution are shown. One is the method of summing the squares of distances between satellites and their earth stations. This is a general evaluation method based on the satellite orbits and satellite positions. The other is an evaluation method of the coverage based on the altitude of satellites and the antenna angles of the earth station. This method is applied to the proposed symmetric orbit, and characteristics of different satellite deployments are discussed comparatively.