Adaptive dynamic channel allocation scheme for spotbeam handover in LEO satellite networks

Abstract

Among satellite systems, the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite system will have an important role in new future communication services, because of its lower propagation delay, lower user terminal and satellite power consumption, and efficient spectrum utilization using a smaller coverage area than its geostationary (GEO) counterpart. However a number of mobility problems that did not exist in GEO satellite systems should be solved. One noticeable mobility problem is the spotbeam handover which occurs most frequently in LEO satellite systems. The frequent spotbeam handover requires a technique to decrease the handover blocking probability. An adaptive dynamic channel allocation (ADCA) scheme is introduced for LEO satellite networks. The ADCA scheme estimates the future number of handover events based on the user location database, and reserves the corresponding number of channels in order to decrease the overall handover blocking probabilities. The performance evaluation shows that the handover blocking probabilities of the ADCA technique substantially decrease in comparison with the other channel allocation schemes.