NetSatBench: A Distributed LEO Constellation Emulator with an SRv6 Case Study

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Detti, Andrea, Dadras, Shahram, Tropea, Giuseppe
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Detti, Andrea
Dadras, Shahram
Tropea, Giuseppe
author_facet Detti, Andrea
Dadras, Shahram
Tropea, Giuseppe
contents NetSatBench is a distributed emulation platform for evaluating communication protocols and application workloads over large-scale LEO satellite systems. Satellites, gateways, and user terminals are implemented as Linux containers distributed across a cluster of bare-metal or virtual machines, while emulated links are realized through a Layer-2 VXLAN overlay. The system state is maintained in an Etcd key-value store and updated through epoch files, which propagate link and task changes to local control agents running inside the emulated nodes. In contrast to library-oriented tools that require users to write control programs, NetSatBench adopts a higher-level declarative workflow based on JSON "scenario files" and a command-line interface. The platform decouples physical-layer and routing modeling from the emulator core through external plug-ins, while providing built-in support for IPv4 and IPv6 routing, including IS-IS and ideal time-varying routing. Rather than focusing on emulator micro-performance alone, we illustrate what NetSatBench enables through an SRv6-based LEO architecture in which control procedures manage data tunnels between users and gateways under different handover policies. This case study shows how NetSatBench can support protocol-level experimentation under time-varying LEO dynamics and highlights the importance of end-to-end handover strategies that jointly account for the satellites serving both the user and the gateway.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_27854
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle NetSatBench: A Distributed LEO Constellation Emulator with an SRv6 Case Study
Detti, Andrea
Dadras, Shahram
Tropea, Giuseppe
Networking and Internet Architecture
NetSatBench is a distributed emulation platform for evaluating communication protocols and application workloads over large-scale LEO satellite systems. Satellites, gateways, and user terminals are implemented as Linux containers distributed across a cluster of bare-metal or virtual machines, while emulated links are realized through a Layer-2 VXLAN overlay. The system state is maintained in an Etcd key-value store and updated through epoch files, which propagate link and task changes to local control agents running inside the emulated nodes. In contrast to library-oriented tools that require users to write control programs, NetSatBench adopts a higher-level declarative workflow based on JSON "scenario files" and a command-line interface. The platform decouples physical-layer and routing modeling from the emulator core through external plug-ins, while providing built-in support for IPv4 and IPv6 routing, including IS-IS and ideal time-varying routing. Rather than focusing on emulator micro-performance alone, we illustrate what NetSatBench enables through an SRv6-based LEO architecture in which control procedures manage data tunnels between users and gateways under different handover policies. This case study shows how NetSatBench can support protocol-level experimentation under time-varying LEO dynamics and highlights the importance of end-to-end handover strategies that jointly account for the satellites serving both the user and the gateway.
title NetSatBench: A Distributed LEO Constellation Emulator with an SRv6 Case Study
topic Networking and Internet Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.27854