FjordLink

Welcome to the FjordLink GitHub repository!

The FjordLink is a combined Starlink and 5G dataset for coastal maritime connectivity. We collect over 500,000 measurements using a Flat High Performance dish and 5G modems on the research vessel, MS Wavelab in the Kiel Fjord (see the figure below for the measurement region, also check out detailed HTML maps) for four months. Starlink and 5G networks achieve median RTTs of less than 50 ms and mean upload throughputs exceeding 35 Mbps. Our results show that Starlink operates similarly (e.g., with a 10 ms median latency difference) in both maritime and terrestrial environments, and improves the 99th percentile latency compared to 5G networks. As a case study, we utilize traces from FjordLink in emulation to evaluate BBR, CUBIC, and Reno congestion control algorithms, where BBR achieves 18% higher upload throughput than CUBIC and Reno.

It was presented at the 3rd Workshop on LEO Networking and Communication (LEO-NET), co-located with the ACM SIGCOMM 2025.

We include Starlink FHP dish terminal statistics and 5G router metrics as well as TWAMP (latency and jitter) and iPerf3 (throughput and jitter) measurements.

This project is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Weather Data Disclaimer

For the use of weather data, please refer to the German Weather Service: Deutscher Wetterdienst

Usage:

1. Clone this Git repository to your local machine using the following command:

git clone https://github.com/ds-kiel/FjordLink.git

2. Create a virtual Python environment (e.g. using pyenv)

curl https://pyenv.run | bash
pyenv install 3.13
pyenv virtualenv 3.13 FjordLink

3. Install the necessary Python packages by running:

cd FjordLink
pip install -r requirements.txt -U

4. Unzip the included data into their respective folders (e.g. out-client-wyk folder should be in the root of the directory, check folders.py for more details)

5. Analyze the data with the supplied Jupyter Notebooks

Playback of traces in Emulation

1. Create a new interface for incoming traffic

ip link add dev ifb0 type ifb
ip link set dev ifb0 up

2. Redirect incoming traffic to the new interface

tc qdisc add dev eth0 ingress
tc filter add dev eth0 parent ffff: protocol ip u32 match u32 0 0 
    action mirred egress redirect dev ifb0

3. Setting up the prio qdisc on eth0

tc qdisc add dev  parent 1: handle 11: prio

4. Example for built tc rules on eth0

tc qdisc change dev eth0 root handle 1: netem \
    delay 11.2ms 1.5ms 
tc filter add dev eth0 parent 11: protocol ip pref 1 matchall \
    action police rate 19.72mbit burst 400k conform-exceed drop

Citation

Birkan Denizer, Nils Dohse, and Olaf Landsiedel. 2025. FjordLink: Comparison of Starlink and 5G Networks for Teleoperated Vessel Control. In Proceedings of the 2025 3rd Workshop on LEO Networking and Communication (LEO-NET '25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 8–14.

@inproceedings{10.1145/3748749.3749085,
author = {Denizer, Birkan and Dohse, Nils and Landsiedel, Olaf},
title = {FjordLink: Comparison of Starlink and 5G Networks for Teleoperated Vessel Control},
year = {2025},
isbn = {9798400720901},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3748749.3749085},
doi = {10.1145/3748749.3749085},
abstract = {The rapid growth of Low Earth Orbit satellite networks, such as Starlink, is increasing global connectivity by enabling low-latency broadband access in regions where wired and cellular networks fall short. Prior research focuses on the performance of Starlink in terrestrial settings. Yet, there is limited research on the performance of Starlink in coastal and maritime environments, raising the question of how Starlink performs in the presence of waves and tides.In this paper, we introduce the FjordLink, a combined Starlink and 5G dataset for coastal maritime connectivity. We collect over 500,000 measurements using a Flat High Performance dish and 5G modems on a research vessel for four months. Starlink and 5G networks achieve median RTTs of less than 50 ms and mean upload throughputs exceeding 35 Mbps. Our results show that Starlink operates similarly (e.g., with a 10 ms median latency difference) in both maritime and terrestrial environments, and improves the 99th percentile latency compared to 5G networks. As a case study, we utilize traces from FjordLink in emulation to evaluate BBR, CUBIC, and Reno congestion control algorithms, where BBR achieves 18\% higher upload throughput than CUBIC and Reno.},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2025 3rd Workshop on LEO Networking and Communication},
pages = {8–14},
numpages = {7},
keywords = {5G, Dataset, Starlink, coastal, maritime, remote control},
location = {Coimbra, Portugal},
series = {LEO-NET '25}
}