Handover Management and Service Availability in Non-Geostationary Satellite Constellations Design

Future technologies for very high throughput satellite systems

“…This could be used, for instance, for dynamically routing traffic channels to adjacent satellites via the ISLs. Also, mesh connectivity could be offered. To limit the handover inefficiency due to satellite‐fixed cells (SFC) configurations, where the on‐board multibeam antenna coverage is fixed and the constant satellite movement induces beam‐to‐beam handover (see Figure ), electronically scanning antennas may implement Earth‐fixed cells (EFC) coverage (see Figure ) or per‐user steering and adaptive beam‐forming reusing much of the technology currently under development for 5G terrestrial base‐stations. In relation to the development of technologies for antenna arrays for LEO, and in particular for VLEO, where the reliability and power level requirements are relaxed and comparable with the targets of 5G terrestrial networks, spin‐in or direct reuse of undergoing technological developments can largely facilitate or enable rapid time‐to‐market deployments. Large effort is currently spent in developing massive hybrid arrays consisting of multiple subarrays with analog beam‐forming at subarray level and digital processing and beam‐forming of subarrays.…”