Modelling Discontinuous LEO Satellite Constellations: Impact on the Machine-To-Machine Traffic and Performance Evaluation

Discontinuous LEO satellite constellations (DisLEO) are expected to be more and more exploited in future satellite telecommunication systems especially in the context of delay-tolerant networks such as messaging and Machine-To-Machine (M2M) communications. No modelling for this type of constellation has been proposed yet. We highlight two different studies points of view: satellite and ground. In this paper, we analyse widely the satellite point of view and we define a new traffic modelling for M2M communications at the satellite point of view. Because of the satellite discontinuity, classical traffic modelling for terrestrial or satellite networks are inadequate. This paper explains the generation of new terminals (who has new message to transmit) under the satellite coverage. To illustrate how works the new traffic model, we perform an example of protocols performance evaluation.