Design Tradeoffs of a Regional LEO System for Emerging New Space Integrated Services

This paper explores the design trade-offs in regional Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite systems providing integrated Internet of Things (IoT) and Earth Observation (EO) services within the "New Space" context. While mega-constellations in LEO offer high data rates and low latency, regional systems present unique challenges and opportunities. Using Uzbekistan’s (UZB) climate as a case study, we examine two scenarios employing Radio Frequency (RF) and Optical (OPT) communication technologies. We identify design vector parameters for the initial deployment of a regional LEO system and apply multi-objective optimization to evaluate performance. Additionally, the simulations and results consider the impact of variations in cloud cover and water content on the configuration’s performance. Our findings reveal critical trade-offs in visibility time, link margin (LM), and latency, allowing us to draw useful design guidelines for New Space regional services.