Toward Optimized Traffic Distribution for Efficient Network Capacity Utilization in Two-Layered Satellite Networks

A Multi-Layered Satellite Network (MLSN) appears to be a promising network to provide global, ubiquitous, and broadband communication. In order to utilize the abundant network resources of the MLSNs, fair traffic distribution among its satellites layers is, indeed, important. In this paper, the authors propose a routing method to optimally distribute traffic load among the layers (i.e., the satellites layers in the MLSN). The load balancing scheme of the proposed routing method is developed by adopting a traffic distribution model, which is based upon network capacity estimation and theoretical analysis of the congestion rate in each layer.