Handover Policies in LEO Systems with Satellite Diversity

In this paper satellite handover procedures are proposed for investigating the satellite diversity (namely, the existing common coverage area between contiguous satellites) of some satellite constellations in order to provide an efficient handover strategy. Based always on a tradeoff of the blocking and forced termination probabilities three different handover criteria are examined for the appropriate selection of the servicing satellite. Each criterion can be applied either to new or handover calls, therefore we investigate nine different service schemes. Extended simulation results provide a deep insight on the system operation and lead to a beneficiary system architecture.