2.1 Analytical Method
Analytical method does mathematical modeling of satellite constellation topology,
communication channel and information transmission. Mathematical model could be
used to evaluate a certain interesting satellites’ performance parameter with respect to
other parameters and find out key impact factors.
Yonghwa Lee et al. analyzed the conventional and general channel model of
satellite system in the mobile environment, and studied the adversary impact of long
propagation delay with respect to various user mobility and Doppler-shifted carrier
frequency [4]. Charilaos I. Kourogiorgas and Athanasios D. Panagopoulos applied
stochastic differential equations to describe mathematical framework of rain attenuation
and did numerical calculation of outage probability of satellite communication with
respect to rain attenuation [5]. Younes Seyedi et al. provided a statistical model for
coverage of mobile low earth orbit satellite communication, and studied coverage time
with respect to satellite orbit parameters [6].
Analytical method is useful to improve satellites’ communication performance by
determining and adjusting key impact factors. However, analytical method usually
evaluates a single performance parameter such as time lag and targets a single satellite.
The overall performance of satellite constellation could not be described by analytical
method accurately. Plus, in order to get mathematical model and do numerical analysis,
analytical method ignores many impact factors and reserves limited parameters, which
could be inconsistent with real satellite communication scenario.
2.2 Software Simulation Method
Software simulation method models satellite constellation by orbit parameters and sets
communication performance parameters such as power, elevation angle and rain
attenuation. This method could simultaneously evaluate multi-parameters of satellite
communication system and demonstrate the dynamic changes of satellite communication links.
A group of Chinese scientists used STK software to do dynamic modeling and
simulation for low earth orbit satellite networks, and evaluate Quality of Service of the
constellation by comparing users’ location update rate with various satellite spot beams
[7]. Five Italian researchers applied MATLAB/Simulink software to model and simulate forward, return and mesh communication links of GEO satellites, and provided
guidelines for the trade-off between efficiency and robustness according to mission
performance requirements [8]. In [9], OPNET software was used to evaluate doubleedge satellite terrestrial networks’ resource allocation efficiency and service time delay.
Software simulation method could do more varieties of performance evaluation of
satellite communication system than analytical method could. However, software
simulation needs researchers to set some parameter values by experience before
evaluation. If some predetermined parameter values are inconsistent with reality,
simulation results would not be able to evaluate real performance of satellite communication system.
Application of Neural Network in Performance …
241
Analytical method does mathematical modeling of satellite constellation topology,
communication channel and information transmission. Mathematical model could be
used to evaluate a certain interesting satellites’ performance parameter with respect to
other parameters and find out key impact factors.
Yonghwa Lee et al. analyzed the conventional and general channel model of
satellite system in the mobile environment, and studied the adversary impact of long
propagation delay with respect to various user mobility and Doppler-shifted carrier
frequency [4]. Charilaos I. Kourogiorgas and Athanasios D. Panagopoulos applied
stochastic differential equations to describe mathematical framework of rain attenuation
and did numerical calculation of outage probability of satellite communication with
respect to rain attenuation [5]. Younes Seyedi et al. provided a statistical model for
coverage of mobile low earth orbit satellite communication, and studied coverage time
with respect to satellite orbit parameters [6].
Analytical method is useful to improve satellites’ communication performance by
determining and adjusting key impact factors. However, analytical method usually
evaluates a single performance parameter such as time lag and targets a single satellite.
The overall performance of satellite constellation could not be described by analytical
method accurately. Plus, in order to get mathematical model and do numerical analysis,
analytical method ignores many impact factors and reserves limited parameters, which
could be inconsistent with real satellite communication scenario.
2.2 Software Simulation Method
Software simulation method models satellite constellation by orbit parameters and sets
communication performance parameters such as power, elevation angle and rain
attenuation. This method could simultaneously evaluate multi-parameters of satellite
communication system and demonstrate the dynamic changes of satellite communication links.
A group of Chinese scientists used STK software to do dynamic modeling and
simulation for low earth orbit satellite networks, and evaluate Quality of Service of the
constellation by comparing users’ location update rate with various satellite spot beams
[7]. Five Italian researchers applied MATLAB/Simulink software to model and simulate forward, return and mesh communication links of GEO satellites, and provided
guidelines for the trade-off between efficiency and robustness according to mission
performance requirements [8]. In [9], OPNET software was used to evaluate doubleedge satellite terrestrial networks’ resource allocation efficiency and service time delay.
Software simulation method could do more varieties of performance evaluation of
satellite communication system than analytical method could. However, software
simulation needs researchers to set some parameter values by experience before
evaluation. If some predetermined parameter values are inconsistent with reality,
simulation results would not be able to evaluate real performance of satellite communication system.
Application of Neural Network in Performance …
241