Abstract-It is anticipated that the satellite component of the future universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) will be based (partly or totally) on non-GEOstationary (non-GEO) constellations of satellites to serve mixed populations of users, each category being treated through different contracts stipulating different quality of service (QoS). In particular, we envisage a high-quality premium service which guarantees the success of each handover procedure, called guaranteed handover (GH) service, and a low-cost lower quality service called regular service, where handover failures are accepted provided that the probability of a call being unsuccessful does not exceed a given value. This paper proposes a strategy which eliminates forced call terminations due to handover failures, thus allowing the GH service. This procedure applies to low earth orbit (LEO) constellations using the satellite-fixed cell technique. An analytical model has been derived to calculate QoS parameters for a mixed population of GH and regular users. Providing both GH service to some users and regular service to other users requires an increased satellite capacity with respect to the case where all the users are served with the regular service; this capacity increase has been evaluated as a function of the percentage of GH users, the traffic load per cell, and the considered satellite mobility environment. The GH approach has been validated through the comparison with another scheme which envisages the queuing of handover requests for privileged users.
It may be that we are now entering the era of LEO constellation satellite communications after thirty years of domination by the GEO systems. This paper heralds the coming of the new era with a tutorial approach to the system design and trade‐offs of LEO constellation system design. It discusses orbital configurations, network topologies and routeing considerations, multiple access schemes and link performance design. In so doing it brings out the major design parameters and how they interact with each other. Also considered are the service applications for the LEO constellation systems, and the important difference between real‐time and delayed communication systems is highlighted. Examples of single and multi‐beam (cellular) coverage system link designs are presented for L‐Ka frequency bands. Future papers will consider aspects of the LEO spacecraft and launchers.
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