Why Starlink and China’s internet satellite groups need to talk to each other
- Research by space agency team finds competing networks could harm each other, with an advantage to the smaller constellation
- ‘Lose-lose situation’ can be avoided if operations are coordinated to make sure everyone has enough room, CNSA study says
Internet satellite networks owned by different countries must coordinate their operations or risk hurting each other’s services, a study by China’s space agency has warned.
In one computer-simulated scenario, operators of the smaller network changed the satellites’ flight path to achieve full communication speed, causing a performance dip in the larger network.
This is because the larger network “does not know another system is making proactive moves and continues using the original strategy to communicate with ground stations”, according to the study published in the January edition of peer-reviewed journal Chinese Space Science and Technology.
But different satellite constellations often used similar radio frequencies which could interfere with each other when communicating with ground stations, Liu and his colleagues said.
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China plans to launch a few hundred small communication satellites to provide internet access around the planet. Meanwhile, SpaceX has put more than 3,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, with plans for a total of more than 30,000.
It remains unclear how these two satellite constellations will interact, but Starlink could act in a way to hurt its competitor, the CNSA team said, warning that a tit-for-tat competition would be a lose-lose situation.
The early version of China’s internet satellite programme included several independent constellations, each with only about 100 satellites run by a few private companies or aerospace contractors.
A small network of this size would have no chance of competing against Starlink, even at its present scale, the study found. Any action taken would result in self-inflicted damage to its communication bandwidth while the larger network would be unscathed.
But in 2021, the central government established the China Satellite Network Group, a state-owned enterprise which merged all internet satellite projects into a network known as Xing Wang, which means StarNet.
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The aim is for StarNet to become a major telecommunications service provider, similar to China Telecom or China Mobile. But the size of the expanded network could bring the effects noted by Liu and his team into play.
Interference between networks could be reduced by building more ground stations, but their simulation showed a cheaper solution to the problem was collaboration, they said.
Satellites in different networks could simply change formation or the direction of their antennas to make room for others. Collaboration would involve “informing each other of the ephemeris, link and other parameters and actively taking evasive measures”, the paper said.
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However, the Chinese military, which controls most of the country’s space activities, is treating Starlink with increasing hostility, with a study by a team of defence researchers warning that the network could threaten China’s hypersonic weapons.
“Starlink can point a beam in any direction for telemetry, tracking and control,” said the researchers from the Military Representative Bureau of the Aerospace Systems Department in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.
“This will improve the high-precision prediction and early warning capabilities, and provide information support for subsequent interception of enemy launch vehicles and missiles,” said the study, which appeared in the December edition of Chinese-language journal Aerospace Electronic Warfare.
“The next-generation defence space architecture cannot be built in the short term. Therefore, the US military must use commercial low-orbit satellite constellations, and Starlink is undoubtedly the first choice.”
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The defence researchers said China’s military could also disrupt the Starlink service in certain areas with AI-powered interference technology.
“There is nothing unique about Starlink’s anti-jamming strategy, but it can respond quickly with a flexible operation mechanism. Advanced new threat learning algorithms can effectively jam these signals,” they said.
The researchers said China would also need powerful directed energy weapons, such as laser and particle beam devices, to disable a large number of orbiting Starlink satellites at a relatively low cost.
