A Low-Complexity Routing Algorithm Based on Load Balancing for LEO Satellite Networks

The mesh topology structure constituted by inter- satellite links(ISLs) along with longitude and latitude, as a feature of most LEO satellite constellations, has not been fully used. Additionally, most LEO networks design its routing protocol depending on path distance, which is only proportional to the propagation delay without consideration of the queue delay. In this paper, a low-complexity routing algorithm (LCRA) based on load balancing is proposed, which can obtain the best path by distributed computation with the location information of the current node and destination. There is no iteration process in the computation, thus saving the computational cost. Additionally, each node informs its neighbouring nodes of its congestion information so that packets can choose the next hop dynamically according to the status of links, so as to shorten the mean queue delay and reduce the packet loss rate. Results assessed by NS2 presents the superiority of LCRA in terms of end-to-end delay, throughput and packet loss rate in comparison with other routing algorithms.