Realtime Multimedia Services over Starlink: A Reality Check

Abstract

Recently, Low Earth orbit Satellite Networking (LSN) has been suggested as a critical and promising component toward high-bandwidth and low-latency global coverage in the upcoming 6G communication infrastructure. SpaceX's Starlink is arguably the largest and most operable LSN to date. There have been practical uses of Starlink with diverse networked applications, including multimedia applications of stringent demands. Given the mixed and inconsistent feedbacks from end users, it remains unclear whether today's LSNs, in particular, Starlink, have been ready for realtime multimedia. In this paper, we present a systematic measurement study on realtime multimedia services over Starlink, seeking insights into their operations and performance in this new generation networking. Our findings demonstrate that Starlink can effectively handle most video-on-demand (VoD) and live-streaming services with properly configured buffers, but suffer from video pauses or audio cut-offs during interactive video conferencing, especially in extreme weather. We also examine the impact of satellite switching and evolution of satellite routing strategies, offering hints into the future enhancements for multimedia services and for LSNs.