Performance Analysis of End-to-End LEO Satellite-Aided Shore-to-Ship Communications: A Stochastic Geometry Approach

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks have shown strategic superiority in maritime communications, assisting in establishing signal transmissions from shore to ship through space-based links. Traditional performance modeling based on multiple circular orbits is challenging to characterize large-scale LEO satellite constellations, thus requiring a tractable approach to accurately evaluate the network performance. In this paper, we propose a theoretical framework for an LEO satellite-aided shore-to-ship communication network (LEO-SSCN), where LEO satellites are distributed as a binomial point process (BPP) on a specific spherical surface. The framework aims to obtain the end-to-end transmission performance by considering signal transmissions through either a marine link or a space link subject to Rician or Shadowed Rician fading, respectively. Due to the indeterminate position of the serving satellite, accurately modeling the distance from the serving satellite to the destination ship becomes intractable. To address this issue, we propose a distance approximation approach. Then, by approximation and incorporating a threshold-based communication scheme, we leverage stochastic geometry to derive analytical expressions of end-to-end transmission success probability and average transmission rate capacity. Extensive numerical results verify the accuracy of the analysis and demonstrate the effect of key parameters on the performance of LEO-SSCN. Notably, with common parameter settings, after incorporating the space link, the transmission success probability increases by 886% with a 13 dB predefined signal-to-noise ratio (or signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio) threshold. This superior performance is attributed to the fact that the space link uses a wider bandwidth and greater power for signal transmission compared to the maritime link. It’s undeniable that the integration of the space link inevitably incurs additional expenses.