Internet Usage and Performance in GEO Satellite Networks: A Large-Scale Study Across Europe and Africa

Satellite Communication (SatCom) offers internet connectivity where traditional infrastructures are too expensive to deploy. When using satellites in a geostationary orbit, the distance from Earth forces a round-trip time of at least 550 ms. Coupled with the constrained capacity of the physical link, this challenges the traditional internet access quality we are used to. In this paper, we present a complete passive characterization of the traffic carried by an operational SatCom provider. With this unique vantage point, we observe the performance of the SatCom technology, as well as the usage habits of subscribers in different countries in Europe and Africa. We highlight the implications of such technology on Internet usage and functioning, and we pinpoint technical challenges due to the CDN and DNS resolution issues, while discussing possible optimizations that the ISP could implement to improve the service offered to SatCom subscribers. We complete the characterization of the adoption and performance of newer protocols with a focus on IPv6 and QUIC.