Latency Simulation

Model end-to-end latency for orbital compute deployments, including propagation delay, ground station handovers, and inter-satellite links.

Status: Early Access — Request API key

Overview

Latency in orbital systems depends on:

Propagation delay — Speed of light distance
Ground station availability — Coverage and handover
Inter-satellite links (ISL) — Routing through constellation
Processing 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}%")

import { RotaStellarClient } from '@rotastellar/sdk';

const client = new RotaStellarClient({ apiKey: 'rs_...' });

const latency = await client.planning.latency({
  orbit: 'LEO-550',
  groundStations: ['us-west', 'us-east', 'europe', 'asia'],
  includeIsl: true
});

console.log(`P50: ${latency.p50Ms}ms`);
console.log(`P99: ${latency.p99Ms}ms`);

curl https://api.rotastellar.com/v1/planning/latency \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer rs_your_api_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "orbit": "LEO-550",
    "ground_stations": ["us-west", "us-east", "europe", "asia"],
    "include_isl": true
  }'

Parameters

string

required

Orbit specification (e.g., LEO-550, MEO-8000, GEO)

array

required

List of ground station regions:

us-west, us-east, us-central
europe, europe-north
asia, asia-south
australia
south-america

boolean

default:"false"

Include inter-satellite link routing

number

Number of satellites (affects ISL routing options)

object

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%+

Getting Started

Planning Tools

Orbital Intelligence

CAE

Operator Agent

Mission Control

Orbital Runtime

Orbital Sim

Distributed Compute

SDKs

Resources

Latency Simulation

Latency Simulation

Overview

Quick Start

Parameters

Response

Latency by Orbit Type

Latency Optimization

With Inter-Satellite Links

Geographic Coverage Analysis

Coverage Gaps

Next Steps

Power Budgeting

Feasibility Analysis

​Latency Simulation

​Overview

​Quick Start

​Parameters

​Response

​Latency by Orbit Type

​Latency Optimization

​With Inter-Satellite Links

​Geographic Coverage Analysis

​Coverage Gaps

​Next Steps

Power Budgeting

Feasibility Analysis

Latency Simulation

Overview

Quick Start

Parameters

Response

Latency by Orbit Type

Latency Optimization

With Inter-Satellite Links

Geographic Coverage Analysis

Coverage Gaps

Next Steps