research-article

A browser-side view of starlink connectivity

Authors:

Mohamed M. Kassem,

Aravindh Raman,

Diego Perino, and

Nishanth SastryAuthors Info & Claims

IMC '22: Proceedings of the 22nd ACM Internet Measurement Conference

October 2022

Pages 151 - 158

https://doi.org/10.1145/3517745.3561457

Published: 25 October 2022 Publication History

Abstract

LEO satellite "mega-constellations" such as SpaceX's Starlink, Amazon's Kuiper, OneWeb are launching thousands of satellites annually, promising high-bandwidth low-latency connectivity. To quantify the achievable performance of such providers, we carry out a measurement study of the spatial and temporal characteristics as well as the geographic variability of the connectivity provided by Starlink, the current leader in this space. We do this by building and deploying a browser extension that provides data about web performance seen by 28 users from 10 cities across the world. We complement this with performance tests run from three measurement nodes hosted by volunteer enthusiasts in the UK, EU and USA. Our findings suggest that although Starlink offers some of the best web performance figures among the ISPs observed, there are important sources of variability in performance such as weather conditions. The bent-pipe connection to a satellite and back to earth also forms a significant component of the observed latency. We also observe frequent and significant packet losses of up to 50% of packets, which appear to be correlated with handovers between satellites. This has an effect on achievable throughput even when using modern congestion control protocols such as BBR or CUBIC.

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Cited By

Izhikevich LTran MIzhikevich KAkiwate GDurumeric Z(2024)Democratizing LEO Satellite Network MeasurementACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review10.1145/3673660.365505252:1(15-16)Online publication date: 13-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3673660.3655052
Izhikevich LTran MIzhikevich KAkiwate GDurumeric ZGaretto MMarin ACiucu FFanti GRighter R(2024)Democratizing LEO Satellite Network MeasurementAbstracts of the 2024 ACM SIGMETRICS/IFIP PERFORMANCE Joint International Conference on Measurement and Modeling of Computer Systems10.1145/3652963.3655052(15-16)Online publication date: 10-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3652963.3655052
Izhikevich LTran MIzhikevich KAkiwate GDurumeric Z(2024)Democratizing LEO Satellite Network MeasurementProceedings of the ACM on Measurement and Analysis of Computing Systems10.1145/36390398:1(1-26)Online publication date: 21-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3639039
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Index Terms

A browser-side view of starlink connectivity
1. Networks
  1. Network performance evaluation
    1. Network measurement

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

IMC '22: Proceedings of the 22nd ACM Internet Measurement Conference

October 2022

796 pages

ISBN:9781450392594

DOI:10.1145/3517745

General Chairs:
Chadi Barakat
Inria, Université Côte d'Azur
,
Cristel Pelsser
University of Strasbourg
,
Program Chairs:
Theophilus A. Benson
Brown University
,
David Choffnes
Northeastern University

Copyright © 2022 ACM.

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Published: 25 October 2022

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IMC '22: ACM Internet Measurement Conference

October 25 - 27, 2022

Nice, France

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Overall Acceptance Rate 277 of 1,083 submissions, 26%

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Cited By

Izhikevich LTran MIzhikevich KAkiwate GDurumeric Z(2024)Democratizing LEO Satellite Network MeasurementACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review10.1145/3673660.365505252:1(15-16)Online publication date: 13-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3673660.3655052
Izhikevich LTran MIzhikevich KAkiwate GDurumeric ZGaretto MMarin ACiucu FFanti GRighter R(2024)Democratizing LEO Satellite Network MeasurementAbstracts of the 2024 ACM SIGMETRICS/IFIP PERFORMANCE Joint International Conference on Measurement and Modeling of Computer Systems10.1145/3652963.3655052(15-16)Online publication date: 10-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3652963.3655052
Izhikevich LTran MIzhikevich KAkiwate GDurumeric Z(2024)Democratizing LEO Satellite Network MeasurementProceedings of the ACM on Measurement and Analysis of Computing Systems10.1145/36390398:1(1-26)Online publication date: 21-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3639039
Xing RXu MZhou ALi QZhang YQian FWang SGanesan DShi W(2024)Deciphering the Enigma of Satellite Computing with COTS Devices: Measurement and AnalysisProceedings of the 30th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking10.1145/3636534.3649371(420-435)Online publication date: 29-May-2024
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Li JLi HLai ZWu QLiu YZhang QLi YLiu JChua TNgo CKa-Wei Lee RKumar RLauw H(2024)SatGuard: Concealing Endless and Bursty Packet Losses in LEO Satellite Networks for Delay-Sensitive Web ApplicationsProceedings of the ACM on Web Conference 202410.1145/3589334.3645639(3053-3063)Online publication date: 13-May-2024
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Mohan NFerguson ACech HBose RRenatin PMarina MOtt JChua TNgo CKa-Wei Lee RKumar RLauw H(2024)A Multifaceted Look at Starlink PerformanceProceedings of the ACM on Web Conference 202410.1145/3589334.3645328(2723-2734)Online publication date: 13-May-2024
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Jiang WHan HZhang YLi XHe MGu W(2023)Rise of Community-driven Communication Network ResearchProceedings of the 2023 9th International Conference on Communication and Information Processing10.1145/3638884.3638931(308-312)Online publication date: 14-Dec-2023
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Martin NDogar F(2023)Divided at the Edge - Measuring Performance and the Digital Divide of Cloud Edge Data CentersProceedings of the ACM on Networking10.1145/36291381:CoNEXT3(1-23)Online publication date: 28-Nov-2023
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Raman AVarvello MChang HSastry NZaki Y(2023)Dissecting the Performance of Satellite Network OperatorsProceedings of the ACM on Networking10.1145/36291371:CoNEXT3(1-25)Online publication date: 28-Nov-2023
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Wang HMyint SVerma VWinetraub YYang JCidon A(2023)Mars Attacks!Proceedings of the 22nd ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks10.1145/3626111.3628199(245-253)Online publication date: 28-Nov-2023
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