The average number of handovers per call in satellite UMTS systems

Satellite systems in future mobile communications will be integrated with terrestrial cellular systems, aiming at worldwide coverage. We develop mobility models for the estimation of the average number of handovers per call in satellite systems. This parameter is crucial especially for low Earth orbit (LEO) systems, where the increased number of handovers affects the quality of service experienced by their users. The proposed mobility models, apart from providing indicative values for the number of handovers in geostationary and LEO systems, also provide means to identify the cell orientation, which minimizes this parameter in LEO systems.