Spatial Resource Management in LEO Satellite

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communication systems are known to have complicated spatial resource management. The problem occurs because of the impossibility to realize fully digital beamforming since its hardware implementation consumes too much power of the on-board battery. On another hand, analog beamforming can not provide enough system coverage in realistic user distribution scenarios. In this paper, we justify the choice of the hybrid multi-beamforming structure for some realistic user distributions. Such a structure guarantees enough coverage with minimal power consumption. For this structure, we propose a new spatial resource allocation intended to minimize handovers and to simplify the calculation of the time user spends inside each satellite beam spot. Numerical results with real system parameters are provided to confirm feasibility.