LENS: A LEO Satellite Network Measurement Dataset

Abstract

Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations are narrowing the performance gap between satellite networks and the terrestrial Internet. Low-latency satellite Internet offered by Starlink enables functionalities that are otherwise unachievable with the traditional geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO) satellite networks, including low-latency live video streaming, cloud gaming and real-time video conferencing. The absence of a comprehensive and long-term network measurement dataset with a global perspective poses significant challenges for researchers to evaluate the application performance over Starlink networks. In this paper, we introduce LENS, which is a LEO satellite network measurement dataset, collected from 13 Starlink dishes, associated with 7 Point-of-Presence (PoP) locations across 3 continents. The dataset currently consists of network latency traces from Starlink dishes with different hardware revisions, various service subscriptions and distinct sky obstruction ratios. We provide a high-level overview and analysis of the latency performance using the dataset and discuss various use cases. This dataset is useful for researchers who wish to understand the long-term network performance of Starlink and to evaluate and optimize the performance of multimedia applications over satellite networks.