Mobility issues for a GEO multi-spot satellite system with OBP capabilities

This paper focuses on the basic mobility issues (satellite cell layout, satellite location area layout, location register organization, paging and localization procedures, cell reselection and handover procedures) suitable for an advanced Geostationary (GEO), multi-spot satellite system provided with On-Board Processing (OBP) capabilities. It is shown that, by exploiting OBP facilities, several advantages, relevant to mobility issues, can be achieved. The paper is based upon the work which the author has been performing in the framework of the European Community ACTS Project "Satellite EHF Communications for Mobile Multimedia Services" (SECOMS). The opinions herewith reported are not necessarily those of the SECOMS project as a whole.