Intersegment handover between terrestrial and satellite segments: analysis and performance evaluation through simulation

In future generation communication systems, integration among different segments (terrestrial indoor, terrestrial outdoor and satellite) will be necessary if aiming at providing real global and contiguous coverage without interruption. To achieve integrated or interworking systems efficient algorithms to perform intersegment handover (ISHO) must be implemented. In this way, the switching among different segments can occur without dropping of the call. The paper aims at analyzing some ISHO procedures developed in the frame of some European projects and at evaluating their performance for different system configurations utilizing a dynamic constellation simulator in the time domain. On the basis of the above procedures, aiming at optimizing resources, a new procedure is proposed and analyzed. For each procedure the execution delay and its range of variation have been evaluated for different constellation geometry. Finally, a performance comparison among the various procedures is shown.