QoS-Centric Handover for Civil Aviation Aircraft Access in Ultra-Dense LEO Satellite Networks

Recently, multiple ultra-dense low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations have been launched, which can provide global high-bandwidth services for civil aviation. However, the high mobility of aircraft and satellites presents great challenges to the handover scheme design in the ultra-dense LEO satellite networks (UDLSNs). In this paper, considering the number of handovers, load balance, and link reliability, we investigate the quality of service (QoS)-centric satellite handover problem for civil aviation aircraft access in the UDLSN. Particularly, the satellite handover problem for multiple aircraft is formulated as a local cooperation game. In this game, each aircraft determines which satellite to handover by cooperating with others in potential interference relationships. By proving that the local cooperation game is an exact potential game, we propose an improved distributed best response (IDBR) algorithm with a faster convergence rate and a collaborative mixed handover strategy (CMHS) iteration algorithm with more possibilities to obtain the optimal solution, respectively. Numerical simulation results show that the proposed schemes can guarantee the QoS requirements of civil aviation and enhance the network utility.