NetSatBench: A Distributed LEO Constellation Emulator with an SRv6 Case Study

Abstract: NetSatBench is a distributed emulation platform for evaluating communication protocols and application workloads over large-scale LEO satellite systems. Satellites, gateways, and user terminals are implemented as Linux containers distributed across a cluster of bare-metal or virtual machines, while emulated links are realized through a Layer-2 VXLAN overlay. The system state is maintained in an Etcd key-value store and updated through epoch files, which propagate link and task changes to local control agents running inside the emulated nodes. In contrast to library-oriented tools that require users to write control programs, NetSatBench adopts a higher-level declarative workflow based on JSON "scenario files" and a command-line interface. The platform decouples physical-layer and routing modeling from the emulator core through external plug-ins, while providing built-in support for IPv4 and IPv6 routing, including IS-IS and ideal time-varying routing. Rather than focusing on emulator micro-performance alone, we illustrate what NetSatBench enables through an SRv6-based LEO architecture in which control procedures manage data tunnels between users and gateways under different handover policies. This case study shows how NetSatBench can support protocol-level experimentation under time-varying LEO dynamics and highlights the importance of end-to-end handover strategies that jointly account for the satellites serving both the user and the gateway.