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Hourly and Weather-Based Variability in Starlink Internet Performance: A TCP and UDP Throughput Study
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Communication Systems.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3015-4495
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Communication Systems.
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Communication Systems.
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Communication Systems.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3172-076X
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2025 (English)In: International Journal on Advances in Networks and Services, E-ISSN 1942-2644, no 3&4, p. 48-55Article in journal, Editorial material (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Starlink provides satellite internet connectivity to customers worldwide using Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites connecting to ground stations and user equipment. Precipitation,hourly variability, and the use of different transport protocols,all have impact on throughput. The study was conducted in Stockholm, Sweden, at a latitude of 59.3 degrees north, which is well north of the main coverage area of Starlink. Higher latitudes are covered by fewer satellites compared to Central Europe and the main regions of the United States. The study consists of throughput measurements with the network performance measurement tool iPerf3 using two different transport protocols:Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol(UDP). Precipitation (rainfall) measurements were conducted simultaneously. The results show a notable decrease in the throughput when moderate rainfall (about 1 mm per hour) is present, about 16 percent for UDP and 28 percent for TCP. The data also show that the throughput varies during different hours of the day, with around 21 percent for UDP and 32 percent for TCP. The highest throughput is received at night and early mornings for both transport protocols. The throughput achieved through the Starlink network with the TCP protocol fluctuates more than on 4G mobile networks. In conclusion, our study provides further knowledge about the effects of precipitation and hourly variability with TCP and UDP on Starlink’s performance, specifically when operated at latitudes outside of Starlink’s main coverage area.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025. no 3&4, p. 48-55
Keywords [en]
starlink; leo-antennas; network; tcp; udp; weather; precipitation; iperf3; ping; throughput; latency; internet measurements.
National Category
Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering
Research subject
Telecommunication
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-378800OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-378800DiVA, id: diva2:2049227
Projects
the Sustainable Mobile Autonomous and Resilient 6G SatCom research centre (SMART 6GSAT),
Funder
Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, CSG23-0001
Note

QC 20260330

Available from: 2026-03-27 Created: 2026-03-27 Last updated: 2026-03-30Bibliographically approved

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Other links

https://www.iariajournals.org/networks_and_services/netser_v18_n34_2025_paged.pdf

Authority records

Beckman, ClaesCareau, CélineFredriksson, EmilSjödin, PeterOlsson, Robert

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CiteExportLink to record
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