Abstract
Low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite constellations (e.g., Starlink) are becoming the necessary component of future Internet. There have been increasing studies on LEO satellite networking. It is a crucial problem how to evaluate these studies in a systematic and reproducible manner. In this paper, we present OpenSN, i.e., an open-source library for emulating large-scale satellite network (SN). Different from Mininet-based SN emulators (e.g., LeoEM), OpenSN adopts container-based virtualization, thus allows for running distributed routing software on each node,and can achieve horizontal scalability via flexible multi-machine extension. Compared to other container-based SN emulators (e.g., StarryNet), OpenSN streamlines the interaction with Docker command line interface and significantly reduces unnecessary operation of creating virtual links. These modifications improve emulation efficiency and vertical scalability on a single machine. Furthermore, OpenSN separates user-defined configuration from container network management via a key-value database that records the necessary information of SN emulation. Such a separation architecture enhances the function extensibility. To sum up, OpenSN exhibits advantages in efficiency, scalability, and extensibility, thus is a valuable open-source library that empowers research on satellite networking. Experimental results show that OpenSN can construct mage-constellations 5X-10X faster than StarryNet, and update link state 2X-4X faster than Mininet.
Research Papers
Research Papers of Developing OpenSN:
[1] Wenhao Lu, Zhiyuan Wang, Hefan Zhang, Shan Zhang, and Hongbin Luo. OpenSN: An Open Source Library for Emulating LEO Satellite Networks. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS), 2025, 36(8): 1574-1590
[2] Wenhao Lu, Zhiyuan Wang, Shan Zhang, Qingkai Meng, and Hongbin Luo. OpenSN: An Open Source Library for Emulating LEO Satellite Networks. Asia Pacific Workshop on Networking (APNET), 2024.
Research Papers of Utilizing OpenSN:
[1] Hefan Zhang, Zhiyuan Wang, Wenhao Lu, Shan Zhang, and Hongbin Luo. Source Routing for LEO Mega-Constellations based on Bloom Filter. IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC), 2025
[2] Zhiyuan Wang, Qingkai Meng, Shan Zhang, and Hongbin Luo. Performance Evaluation for Latency-Stability Tradeoff in Satellite-Terrestrial Integrated Networks. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (ToN), 2025
[3] Hefan Zhang, Zhiyuan Wang, Shan Zhang, Qingkai Meng, and Hongbin Luo. Link-identified Routing Architecture in Space. IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering (TNSE), 2025, 12(1): 392-408.
[4] Zhiyuan Wang, Xin Lai, Shan Zhang, Qingkai Meng, and Hongbin Lu. Enabling Byzantine Fault Tolerance in Access Authentication for Mega-Constellations. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (ToN), 2024, 32(6): 5341-5355
[5] Shuo Huang, Zhiyuan Wang, Wenhao Lu, Kai Shen, Jiayi Zhang, Shan Zhang, and Hongbin Luo. How to Route CUBIC and BBR Packets in Space. International Symposium on Modeling and Optimization in Mobile, Ad hoc, and Wireless Networks (WiOpt), 2024
[6] Fei Yan, Zhiyuan Wang, Shan Zhang, Qingkai Meng, and Hongbin Luo. Logic Path Identified Hierarchical Routing for Large-Scale LEO Satellite Networks. IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering (TNSE), 2024, 11(4): 3731-3746.
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{11021408,
author={Lu, Wenhao and Wang, Zhiyuan and Zhang, Hefan and Zhang, Shan and Luo, Hongbin},
journal={IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems},
title={OpenSN: An Open Source Library for Emulating LEO Satellite Networks},
year={2025},
volume={36},
number={8},
pages={1574-1590},
keywords={Satellites;Emulation;Low earth orbit satellites;Routing;Containers;Software;Scalability;Computer architecture;Satellite constellations;Topology;Low-earth-orbit satellite constellations;satellite network emulator;container},
doi={10.1109/TPDS.2025.3575920}}