Modeling Economic Competition in the Business of Mega-Constellations
Abstract
This project aims at developing a game framework to model economic competition within the business of mega constellations. A business game framework will enable to simulate the outcome of strategic decisions and acquire insight on which factors drive the success of a mega-constellation enterprise. With the advancement of communications technology, lower launch costs, and development of small-satellites, the satellite internet marketplace is becoming a complex and fast-expanding sector. While modeling of individual satellite constellations and comparisons of relative technical performance have been conducted, modeling the competition between satellite internet providers and their complex strategies remains largely unexplored. This project aims to model the dynamics of long-term market strategies and competition between different satellite internet providers by framing the problem as a multi-player, strategy-simulation game. We use a mixture of modeling and gamification to create the prototype of a game in which players construct and operate proliferated low Earth orbit (P-LEO) constellations that provide satellite internet to simulated customers. In the gamified environment, players can take four basic actions: ordering satellites, building ground stations, launching satellites into orbit, and setting a monthly internet subscription price for their customers. The framework also includes a primitive technology tree where players can explore the impact of new technologies for better constellation performance and customer acquisition as emergent game strategies. Like previous strategy simulation games designed for research, a server authoritative software architecture is used to connect a hosted web server to multiple clients. The envisioned final outcome of this project can be used as an educational tool, a business decision support system, a simulation used for national security, an AI test environment, or simply a recreational game.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 06, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1163306
Entities
People
- Daniel Tauritz
- Davide Guzzetti
Organizations
- Auburn University