The Ground Station (GS) time is shared between different customers and missions using a high efficiency scheduling algorithm, optimizing the GSs use while satisfying the customer’s constraints.

From the operations point of view, Leaf Space will carry out all the activities and management of the ground segment, therefore the customer will have the important advantage of focusing more on his own core business.

To interact with the Leaf Line network, our customer can use a dedicated API and a real-time data transfer interface through which a proprietary control center or ground segment manager software can be easily integrated.

Leaf Space has decided to adopt a unique distributed mid/low-latitude network architecture instead of a near-polar one due to a series of advantages:

• No single-point of failure: single GS temporary unavailability would not induce catastrophic downgrade of the service
• High capacity for a wide range of orbits: the network is optimized to provide high contact time and low latency not only to SSO orbits but also to low-inclination and equatorial ones in a full range of eccentricities and orbital planes configurations.
• High tolerance to real-world satellite deployment: close deployments from the launch vehicle, typical of recent ride-share missions, have a congestion effect on the ground segment when several satellites overlaps over a single location. The distributed configuration allows a better balance of peak request among all the GSs.
• Lower RF interference: RF interference due to frequent satellite conjunction (typical of near-polar sites for SSOs) is avoided, in addition Leaf Space carries out a continuous work of assessment and mitigation over interference issues both on operational location and during new location selection.
• High load balancing capability: peak capacity requests are easily handled with automated balancing among different locations. In addition, a single GS failure has a very limited impact on the overall network capacity and performance.
• Demanding location avoidance: locations characterized by extreme weather conditions and difficult reachability are avoided, to increase the overall up-time of the system and assure a fast and cost-effective GS deployment and maintenance.

The Leaf Line Ground Segment Service is therefore the perfect solution for missions requiring high contact time and low latency typical of a distributed ground station network.