SATELLITE COMMUNICATION WITH DISTRIBUTED GROUND STATIONS USING A MULTI-LEVEL QUEUE

The disclosure herein describes using satellites and ground sinks and/or stations for routing IoT device data packets from IoT devices. A target ground sink in range of the satellite is identified and an expected reception (ER) score for the target ground sink is calculated based on ER parameter data and location data of the satellite. A data packet in a first level of a multi-level data structure of the satellite is sent to the target ground sink and, based on an ER threshold exceeding the ER score, the packet is moved to a second level of the multi-level data structure, whereby the data packet is queued to be sent to another ground sink. The disclosure further includes using cell towers as ground sinks and/or using them for backhauling with other ground sinks. The flexibility of the disclosure enables large ground sink networks to be established, reducing latency of packet routing.