Joint Consideration of Doppler Shift and Weather Attenuation in Ka-band LEO Satellite Networks: Analysis of Combined Throughput Impact

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks are increasingly operating in higher frequency bands such as the Ka-band to support greater bandwidth and improved service throughput. At these frequencies, both weather attenuation and Doppler shift significantly affect link reliability, signal quality, and overall throughput. This paper analyzes the individual and combined effects of weather attenuation and Doppler shift on channel quality using simulations based on real-world weather trace data. We focus on ground station selection by evaluating the impact on individual base stations. Our results show that jointly considering weather and Doppler effects leads to an improvement in accurately estimating channel capacities. This enhanced estimation enables more reliable identification of the best-performing base station, leading to improved network performance, particularly in terms of throughput, in LEO satellite communication networks.