Resilient Virtual Constellation-based Load-balancing Routing Strategy for LEO Satellite Networks

The inter-satellite routing of low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations is subject to significant challenges in terms of latency and load balancing, to cope with the uneven and time-varying distribution of onboard traffic. To address these challenges, this paper proposes the concept of resilient virtual constellation (RVC), where satellites are divided into backbone and access satellites to compose multiple homogeneous regions, with each region consisting of one backbone satellite and several access satellites. The proposed hierarchical architecture of the RVC significantly reduces network routing complexity while maintaining a robust and efficient routing scheme. Specifically, a virtual network topology is constructed based on traffic patterns. Segment routing is then applied to the virtual network, enabling load-balanced routing decisions across regions with lower complexity. Furthermore, the recovery of optimal end-to-end traffic paths from virtual paths by robust optimization ensures adaptability to potential real-time changes in user demands. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed solution effectively mitigates network bottlenecks and significantly enhances system throughput.