A Threshold-Based Handover Prioritization Scheme in LEO Satellite Networks

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks will work as an important component of the future telecommunications system. Multi-spot-beam antennas on satellites will allow a cellular coverage all over the Earth. However, the high speed of a mobile satellite may give rise to a large number of inter-beam and inter-satellite handovers during a call lifetime. In this paper, the author proposed a threshold-based handover prioritization (TBHP) resource management scheme for LEO satellite networks. In order to utilize the resource more effectively, the proposed method defers the channel locking time in the guaranteed handover (GH) algorithm, and in this way decreases the new call blocking probability while keeping very small forced termination probability of prioritized users. The new method is evaluated through an analytical model, from which the quantitative relation between the critical operational parameters and system performance metrics is derived. Simulation results show that our scheme offers a better chance to accept a new call while guaranteeing the handover processes for prioritized calls to a certain extent. Therefore the system resource utilization is improved.