Utilizing Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks equipped with Inter-Satellite Links (ISL) is envisioned to provide lower delay compared to traditional optical networks. However, LEO satellites have constrained energy resources as they rely on solar energy in their operations. Thus requiring special consideration when designing network topologies that do not only have low-delay link paths but also low-power consumption. In this paper, we study different satellite constellation types and network typologies and propose a novel power-efficient topology. As such, we compare three common satellite architectures, namely; (i) the theoretical random constellation, the widely deployed (ii) Walker-Delta, and (iii) Walker-Star constellations. The comparison is performed based on both the power efficiency and end-to-end delay. The results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms long-haul ISL paths in terms of energy efficiency with only a slight hit to delay performance relative to the conventional ISL topology.

翻译：利用配备星间链路（ISL）的低地球轨道（LEO）卫星网络，相较于传统光网络，有望提供更低的延迟。然而，LEO卫星依赖太阳能运行，其能量资源受限。因此，在设计网络拓扑时需特别考虑，既要实现低延迟链路路径，又要兼顾低功耗。本文研究了不同的卫星星座类型与网络拓扑，并提出了一种新型节能拓扑。为此，我们比较了三种常见的卫星架构：(i) 理论随机星座、(ii) 广泛部署的Walker-Delta星座以及(iii) Walker-Star星座。基于功率效率和端到端延迟对上述架构进行了对比分析。结果表明，与常规ISL拓扑相比，所提算法在能量效率上优于长距离ISL路径，而延迟性能仅略有下降。