DROPS

Document

DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.28

CrowdLink: Unlocking Idle LEO Network Capacity with User Terminals

Authors: Lixin Liu, Jinyao Zhang, Bijia You, Yimei Chen, Jiabo Yang, Yuanjie Li, Hewu Li, Qian Wu, Zeqi Lai, and Jun Liu

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 139, 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)

Abstract

The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) network is booming worldwide thanks to its unprecedented number of satellites. However, most of these satellites remain underutilized to connect more users or boost performance, posing tensions for their return on investment. A critical cause is that their gateways to the Internet (ground stations) are geographically skewed or even centralized, forming last-mile bottlenecks. We examine the potential of eliminating these bottlenecks with ubiquitous user terminals (UTs). Our solution, CrowdLink, reuses UTs as local access points to decentralize satellites' gateways to the Internet, and as relays to convert idle satellite radio links into additional paths for more network capacity. This user-centric paradigm is self-scaling to more UTs and satellites (akin to P2P networks), resilient to rapid satellite mobility, mutually beneficial for users and operators, and readily deployable in operational LEO networks. Our real tests with Starlink UTs across three countries and large-scale simulations show that CrowdLink can increase each UT’s throughput by 3.09× on average (up to 65.27×), double the LEO network capacity utilization, and unlock 2.05-7.99 million more users for Starlink without adding satellites/ground stations.

Cite as

Lixin Liu, Jinyao Zhang, Bijia You, Yimei Chen, Jiabo Yang, Yuanjie Li, Hewu Li, Qian Wu, Zeqi Lai, and Jun Liu. CrowdLink: Unlocking Idle LEO Network Capacity with User Terminals. In 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 139, pp. 28:1-28:26, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{liu_et_al:OASIcs.NINeS.2026.28,
  author =	{Liu, Lixin and Zhang, Jinyao and You, Bijia and Chen, Yimei and Yang, Jiabo and Li, Yuanjie and Li, Hewu and Wu, Qian and Lai, Zeqi and Liu, Jun},
  title =	{{CrowdLink: Unlocking Idle LEO Network Capacity with User Terminals}},
  booktitle =	{1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)},
  pages =	{28:1--28:26},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-414-7},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{139},
  editor =	{Argyraki, Katerina and Panda, Aurojit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.28},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-256130},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.28},
  annote =	{Keywords: LEO Satellite Networks, User Terminal Relaying, Capacity Utilization}
}

Search Results

Documents authored by Liu, Lixin

CrowdLink: Unlocking Idle LEO Network Capacity with User Terminals

Abstract

Cite as

Thanks for your feedback!

Could not send message