Quick coverage analysis of mega Walker Constellation based on 2D map

Abstract Providing communication and internet services by mega constellation is the developing trend of the communication system. For the requirement of quick analysis of mega Walker constellation, utilizing the symmetry of the constellation, a continuous coverage analysis method is proposed based on 2D map theory. This method first calculates the minimum unit with repeated coverage performance on the 2D map according to constellation configuration parameters. Then select the satellites that determine the coverage performance of the minimum unit. Based on the phase distribution of these satellites, the overlap of their coverage regions inside the minimum unit is solved. Finally, the coverage performance of the whole constellation can be obtained. Compared with the conventional methods, this method avoids redundant calculation of inter-satellite positions and positions between the satellites and ground targets, which greatly simplifies the solving process of the coverage performance, so that the time complexity does not increase significantly with the increase of satellites. Taking the Starlink system as an example, the simulation results show that compared to the conventional method, the proposed method can obtain the coverage performance of the same precision while taking much less time.