{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]],"date-time":"2026-07-21T16:04:05Z","timestamp":1784649845560,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"14","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]],"date-time":"2026-07-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784592000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Satellite\u2013terrestrial integrated networks (STINs) can extend remote sensor telemetry, remote Internet of Things (IoT), and emergency communication services beyond terrestrial coverage, but their evaluation is complicated by heterogeneous mobility, channel, resource, and control-plane dynamics. This study presents a software-based modular testbed and performance-emulation framework for STINs.\u00a0The framework integrates scenario generation, model-driven data processing, replaceable algorithm engines, scheduler-based execution control, and a Kafka-style message interface. It models terrestrial, unmanned aerial vehicle, and low-Earth-orbit satellite entities and provides link-budget abstraction, access control, mobility-aware handover, traffic generation, scheduling, load balancing, adaptive routing, and multi-mode transmission for mixed sensing and communication traffic. The representative strategies are evaluated using a lightweight emulation model parameterized by standards-informed NTN and link-budget assumptions. Representative results reveal tradeoffs between access, handover, routing, and scheduling strategies, together with sensitivity to workload, mobility, outage, demand, and selected model parameters. The proposed framework therefore supports traceable STIN strategy evaluation for remote sensor networks, sensing-data backhaul, and remote-IoT service scenarios under explicit emulation assumptions.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s26144623","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]],"date-time":"2026-07-21T15:17:52Z","timestamp":1784647072000},"page":"4623","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Testbed Design and Performance Emulation for Satellite\u2013Terrestrial Integrated Networks"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"given":"Erlong","family":"Wei","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Artificial Intelligence, Xidian University, Xi\u2019an 710071, China"},{"name":"The 54th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, Shijiazhuang 050081, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Junna","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The 54th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, Shijiazhuang 050081, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yihong","family":"Wen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The 54th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, Shijiazhuang 050081, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4690","DOI":"10.1109\/COMST.2026.3660335","article-title":"Multi-Satellite Cooperative Communications for 6G: Fundamentals, System Design, and Applications","volume":"28","author":"Shang","year":"2026","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. 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