Latency performance evaluation of LEO Starlink and SES-12 GEO HTS network under tropical rainfall conditions

High Throughput Satellites (HTS) in geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) have been rapidly launched to meet the growing demand for high-speed data. However, the latency of HTS remains the same as that of conventional GEO satellites due to the characteristics of their orbit. Recently, Starlink HTS satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) mega constellations have been operationalised globally, providing low-latency internet services compared to GEO HTS. Despite their high-speed benefits, Ku-band HTS systems are highly susceptible to rain-induced signal attenuation, particularly in regions with heavy rainfall, such as the tropics and equatorial countries. This phenomenon weakens the radio frequency signals and impacts real-time latency in the communication link. This research aims to determine the latency effect of the HTS satellite in LEO and GEO and evaluate its performance under heavy rainfall conditions. This study utilises real satellite link services from SES-12 GEO HTS and LEO Starlink for performance assessment. Continuous latency measurements are recorded over six months to analyse Ku-band performance in a heavy rainfall region. The results indicate that extreme rainfall in the tropical region significantly affects GEO satellite links, causing prolonged signal degradation due to fixed ground stations. In contrast, Starlink’s LEO network experiences less impact from rain fade, as it dynamically switches between multiple satellites. The results show latency for the GEO terminal link ranges from 600 milliseconds (ms) to 3000 milliseconds (ms), whereas latency for the LEO Starlink terminal ranges from 20 milliseconds (ms) to 100 milliseconds (ms). Starlink provides higher satellite link availability at 99.6% onsite compared to 94% for the tropical region's SES-12 GEO HTS satellite services