Capacity bound analysis of networked TT&C architecture based on stochastic geometry and queuing theory✩

Xiaoran Jiang; Yafeng Zhan; Jianhua Lu

doi:10.1016/j.dcan.2025.11.003

›› 2026, Vol. 12 ›› Issue (5) :855 -868. DOI: 10.1016/j.dcan.2025.11.003

Research Article

research-article

Capacity bound analysis of networked TT&C architecture based on stochastic geometry and queuing theory^✩

Xiaoran Jiang ^a^,^b^,^c
, Yafeng Zhan ^a^,^*
, Jianhua Lu ^b^,^c

Author information +

^a Beijing National Research Center for Information Science and Technology, Tsinghua University , Beijing, 100084, China

^b Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University (BNRist) , Beijing, 100084, China

^c State Key Laboratory of Space Network and Communications , Beijing, 100084, China

^* E-mail addresses: jiang-xr23@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn (X. Jiang),

zhanyf@tsinghua.edu.cn (Y. Zhan),

lhh-dee@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn (J. Lu).

Xiaoran Jiang is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in information and communication engineering at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. She received a B.E. degree in information engineering from Southeast University, Nanjing, China, in 2023. Her current research focuses on satellite TT&C systems.

Yafeng Zhan received B.S.E.E. and Ph.D E.E. degrees from the Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 1999 and 2004, respectively. He is currently a Professor with the Beijing National Research Center for Information Science and Technology, Tsinghua University. His current research interests include satellite TT&C systems, communication signal processing and deep space communications. He serves as an Editor of Chinese Space Science and Technology.

Jianhua Lu (Fellow, IEEE) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 1986 and 1989, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and electronic engineering from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China, in 1998. Since 1989, he has been with the Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, where he is currently a Professor. He is also the Vice President of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. His research interests include broadband wireless communications, multimedia signal processing, and satellite communications. He has authored/co-authored over 300 referred technical papers published in internationally renowned journals and conferences and over 80 Chinese invention patents. He is a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was a recipient of the Best Paper Awards at the IEEE ICCCS 2002, China Communications 2006, IEEE Embedded-Com 2012, IEEE WCSP 2015, IEEE IWCMC 2017, and IEEE ICNC 2019. He served as an Editor for IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS from 2008 to 2011 and the program committee co-chair and a TPC member for many international conferences. He is the Editor-in-Chief of China Communications.

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Abstract

As commercial mega-constellations such as SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper system rapidly expand, traditional Tracking, Telemetry, and Command (TT&C) architectures encounter unprecedented scalability challenges. Thus, a novel scheme design and capacity analysis framework is proposed for networked TT&C system serving large-scale Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations. The networked TT&C architecture is designed to leverage Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites to monitor LEO constellations, providing TT&C service for both normal and anomalous LEO satellites through inter-satellite links. A capacity decomposition framework is introduced, dividing system capacity into access capacity and anomaly-handling capacity. Through stochastic geometry and queuing theory models, the maximum number of LEO satellites that can be supported under various operational constraints is quantified. It is demonstrated by simulation results that for Starlink Phase 1, if the second-generation O3b mPower system is utilized for TT&C, the system can support up to 59,497 LEO satellites under a 30-second threshold of polling waiting time, and up to 50,761 satellites under a 10-minute threshold of anomaly-handling time in the steady state. The analysis provides critical design guidelines for the deployment and management of large-scale LEO constellations, highlighting the trade-offs between system capacity and operational constraints such as polling waiting time and anomaly-handling waiting time.

Keywords

Networked TT&C systems / Capacity analysis / Queuing theory / Satellite communications / Constellation design / Anomaly handling / Space networking / Mega-constellations

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Xiaoran Jiang, Yafeng Zhan, Jianhua Lu. Capacity bound analysis of networked TT&C architecture based on stochastic geometry and queuing theory^✩. , 2026, 12 (5) : 855-868 DOI:10.1016/j.dcan.2025.11.003

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CRediT authorship contribution statement

Xiaoran Jiang: Writing – original draft, Visualization, Validation, Software, Methodology, Investigation, Data curation, Conceptualization; Yafeng Zhan: Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization; Jianhua Lu: Validation, Supervision, Resources, Project administration, Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Conceptualization.

Declaration of competing interest

All authors declare that there are no competing interests.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 62131012.

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