Abstract: Distributed applications deployed on LEO satellites
and ground stations require substantial communication between
different members in a constellation to overcome the earth
coverage barriers imposed by GEOs. Applications running on LEO
constellations suffer the earth line-of-sight blockage effect. They
need adequate lab testing before launching to space. We propose
a scalable cloud-based network simulation framework to simulate
problems created by the earth line-of-sight blockage. The framework
utilized cloud IaaS virtual machines to simulate LEO satellites
and ground stations distributed software. A factorial ANOVA
statistical analysis is conducted to measure simulator overhead on
overall communication performance. The results showed a very low
simulator communication overhead. Consequently, the simulation
framework is proposed as a candidate for testing LEO constellations
with distributed software in the lab before space launch.