Ground User Clustering for Adaptive Multibeam GEO Satellite Networks

This paper considers geometry-aware ground user clustering and Cluster Center Optimization for beam pointing and scheduling in adaptive multibeam Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite networks. By grouping ground users, beams can be directed toward user clusters to maximize satellite throughput. We propose GeoClust, a polynomial-time geometric user clustering algorithm for adaptive multibeam GEO satellite networks, using a geometric set-cover approach that explicitly balances link signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and hopping overhead. The algorithm employs a Boyle–Dykstra projection-based cluster center update within an alternating optimization framework, combined with nearest-center membership updates, to enforce the cluster-radius constraint while ensuring feasibility and provable convergence. It also achieves near-linear throughput scaling with increasing number of RF chains. Numerical evaluations on real-world population data show that, under heavy traffic conditions, our approach more than doubles the zero outage and median user rates compared to benchmark schemes.