Empirical Performance Analysis of Flow-Level Traffic over LEO Satellite Internet Links

• Ricardo A. S. Filho UFF
• Lucca V. Chatack UFF
• Igor M. Moraes UFF
• Nicollas R. de Oliveira UFF
• Diogo M. F. Mattos UFF

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sbrc.2026.19792

Abstract

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations have emerged as a promising approach to achieving global connectivity. Nevertheless, the stability of their performance under conditions of high user demand remains insufficiently explored. An ongoing research question concerns the extent to which satellite handovers and link variability affect the Quality of Experience (QoE) when a single terminal serves multiple users. This study presents an empirical evaluation of Starlink’s ability to support a scientific conference involving up to 90 simultaneous clients using it as the primary backhaul. The experiment was conducted in a real-world environment, correlating flow-level traffic profiles, satellite signal quality metrics, and edge router resource utilization within a deliberately overprovisioned local infrastructure. The findings indicate that the network successfully sustained aggregate throughput peaks exceeding 200 Mb/s while maintaining latency consistently within the 30–50 ms range.

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