A Detailed Characterization of Starlink One-way Delay

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks, such as Starlink, are transforming global Internet access by delivering high-speed connectivity to underserved and remote regions. Despite extensive research into Starlink's performance, latency characteristics remain under-explored. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of one-way delay components in the Starlink network using high-frequency, high-precision measurement probes. Over a 10-day period, more than 500 million probe packets were collected and analyzed. The results reveal minor diurnal latency variation and provide means to separate out the delay components contributing to the observed one-way delay, and we sketch a delay model and provide empirical distributions. By measuring both uplink and downlink paths, the study uncovers significant differences in scheduling behavior, with uplink delays more affected by Starlink's periodic 15-second reconfiguration cycles. The results also highlight the limitations of using too coarse measurement intervals, which can introduce aliasing effects. Our OWD data set and traffic generation tool are made available to support further research in the area.