On the Distribution of Pass Duration and Handover Rate in Mega Satellite Constellations

Abstract

Low Earth orbit mega constellations are envisioned to revolutionize the current communication systems by providing auxiliary coverage that supplements beyond fifth generation communications. Nevertheless, these constellations exhibit extremely short pass durations owing to their low altitudes and inherent high orbital velocities, ultimately resulting in intermittent connectivity. This is often cured by deploying thousands of satellites in-orbit, which results in better overall connectivity at the expense of higher complexity and careful design. Hence, it is essential to design these networks meticulously by taking into consideration their pass duration distribution across the entire network. This article leverages tools from stochastic geometry to derive closed-form representations for the distribution of the pass length and duration of the satellites within a mega satellite network. The models are then utilized to derive statistical properties for various network configurations under different scenarios. The article also provides a closed-form representation of the expected remaining time for each satellite pass duration and handover rate boundaries which provide a benchmark for handover frequency design. Moreover, the model is then expanded to take into account the different variations that occur due to user environment diversity which provides a more realistic distribution for practical scenarios. The paper compares the model with Monte-Carlo simulations to verify their validity under various configurations.