Latency Simulation Model end-to-end latency for orbital compute deployments, including propagation delay, ground station handovers, and inter-satellite links.
Overview Latency in orbital systems depends on:
Propagation delay — Speed of light distanceGround station availability — Coverage and handoverInter-satellite links (ISL) — Routing through constellationProcessing delay — On-board and ground processing
Quick Start from rotastellar import RotaStellarClient client = RotaStellarClient( api_key = "rs_..." ) latency = client.planning.latency( orbit = "LEO-550" , ground_stations = [ "us-west" , "us-east" , "europe" , "asia" ], include_isl = True ) print ( f "P50 latency: { latency.p50_ms } ms" ) print ( f "P95 latency: { latency.p95_ms } ms" ) print ( f "P99 latency: { latency.p99_ms } ms" ) print ( f "Coverage: { latency.coverage_percent } %" )
Parameters Orbit specification (e.g., LEO-550, MEO-8000, GEO)
List of ground station regions:
us-west, us-east, us-centraleurope, europe-northasia, asia-southaustraliasouth-america Include inter-satellite link routing
Number of satellites (affects ISL routing options)
Specific user location for point-to-point latency: { "lat" : 37.7749 , "lon" : -122.4194 }
Response { "p50_ms" : 25 , "p95_ms" : 48 , "p99_ms" : 72 , "min_ms" : 12 , "max_ms" : 145 , "coverage_percent" : 98.5 , "breakdown" : { "propagation_ms" : 8 , "processing_ms" : 5 , "handover_ms" : 12 , "isl_hops_avg" : 1.3 }, "ground_station_stats" : [ { "station" : "us-west" , "contact_percent" : 35 , "avg_elevation_deg" : 42 }, { "station" : "europe" , "contact_percent" : 28 , "avg_elevation_deg" : 38 } ], "gaps" : [ { "start_min" : 23 , "duration_min" : 4 , "region" : "pacific" } ] }
Latency by Orbit Type Orbit Altitude One-way Propagation RTT (typical) LEO 550 km 1.8 ms 20-50 ms MEO 8,000 km 27 ms 80-150 ms GEO 35,786 km 120 ms 480-600 ms
Latency Optimization With Inter-Satellite Links ISLs can reduce latency by routing traffic through space instead of bouncing to ground:
# Without ISL - must wait for ground station contact latency_no_isl = client.planning.latency( orbit = "LEO-550" , ground_stations = [ "us-west" ], include_isl = False ) # With ISL - can route through constellation latency_with_isl = client.planning.latency( orbit = "LEO-550" , ground_stations = [ "us-west" ], include_isl = True , constellation_size = 100 ) print ( f "Without ISL: P99 = { latency_no_isl.p99_ms } ms" ) print ( f "With ISL: P99 = { latency_with_isl.p99_ms } ms" )
Geographic Coverage Analysis Analyze latency from specific user locations:
# Latency from San Francisco to orbital compute latency = client.planning.latency( orbit = "LEO-550" , ground_stations = [ "us-west" , "us-east" ], user_location = { "lat" : 37.7749 , "lon" : - 122.4194 } ) print ( f "SF to orbit P50: { latency.p50_ms } ms" )
Coverage Gaps LEO satellites don’t provide continuous coverage. The API identifies gaps:
latency = client.planning.latency( orbit = "LEO-550" , ground_stations = [ "us-west" ] ) for gap in latency.gaps: print ( f "Gap at { gap.start_min } min, duration { gap.duration_min } min" )
To eliminate gaps, add more ground stations or enable ISL:
# Add more ground stations latency = client.planning.latency( orbit = "LEO-550" , ground_stations = [ "us-west" , "us-east" , "europe" , "asia" ], include_isl = True ) print ( f "Coverage: { latency.coverage_percent } %" ) # ~99%+
Next Steps
Power Budgeting Plan power for your orbital deployment
Feasibility Analysis Complete feasibility assessment
