Satellite handover strategies based on minimum routing hops for mega LEO satellite networks

doi:10.23919/JSEE.2025.000028

Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics ›› 2026, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (1): 64-74.doi: 10.23919/JSEE.2025.000028

• ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY • Previous Articles Next Articles

Satellite handover strategies based on minimum routing hops for mega LEO satellite networks

Hongtao ZHU¹(), Xinyu WANG¹(), Zhenyong WANG¹^,²^,*(), Dezhi LI¹(), Qing GUO¹()

¹School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
²Songjiang Laboratory, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China

Received:2023-12-18 Online:2026-02-18 Published:2026-03-09
Contact: Zhenyong WANG E-mail:zhuhongtao@hit.edu.cn;wang_xinyu@hit.edu.cn;zywang@hit.edu.cn;lidezhi@hit.edu.cn;qguo@hit.edu.cn
About author:
ZHU Hongtao was born in 1994. He received his M.S. degree from the School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in 2020. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree with information and communication engineering, HIT, Harbin, China. His research interests include satellite communications and mobility management. E-mail: zhuhongtao@hit.edu.cn

WANG Xinyu was born in 1992. She received her Ph.D. degree from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, in 2022, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China, in 2023. She is currently a lecturer in the School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology. Her research interests include wireless transmission and multiple access technologies. E-mail: wang_xinyu@hit.edu.cn

WANG Zhenyong was born in 1977. He received his M.E and Ph.D. degrees in information and communication engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology in 2002 and 2007 respectively. He is a professor in the School of Electronics and Information Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology. His interests include satellite tracking telernetering and command, space information networks, wireless cognitive radio, internet of things, and artificial intelligence. E-mail: zywang@hit.edu.cn

LI Dezhi was born in 1982. He received his M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in information and communication engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology in 2006 and 2012 respectively. He is now with Harbin Institute of Technology as a research assistant and master supervisor. His interests include satellite communication, digital signal processing, fountain codes and software radio. E-mail: lidezhi@hit.edu.cn

GUO Qing was born in 1964. He received his B.S. degree in radio engineering from Beijing Institute of Posts and Telecommunications in 1985, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in information and communication engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology in 1990 and 1998 respectively. He is a professor in the School of Electronics and Information Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology, and the director of Key Laboratory of Wideband Wireless Communications and Networks, Heilongjiang. His research interests include broadband satellite communications, space information networks, and wireless communication networks. E-mail: qguo@hit.edu.cn
Supported by:
This work was supported by the State Key Laboratory of Micro-Spacecraft Rapid Design and Intelligent Cluster (MS01240103), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (62071146, 62431009), the National 2011 Collaborative Innovation Center of Wireless Communication Technologies (2242022k60006), the Research Project Fund of Songjiang Laboratory ( SL20230104), and Heilongjiang Province Postdoctoral General Foundation (LBH-Z22133).

Abstract

Abstract:

Mega low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks serve as effective complements to terrestrial networks. However, the dual mobility of users and LEO satellites makes inter-satellite handovers more frequent for users. Moreover, there are both ascending and descending segments in widely deployed walker-delta constellations. Even if the locations of users do not change, when the access satellites of the communicating parties are not in the same ascending or descending segment, the end-to-end latency between them will increase. To address this challenge, the self-decision handover (SDH) strategy and the joint decision handover (JDH) strategy are proposed, and they both incorporate the routing hops as a crucial handover criterion to minimize the end-to-end latency. In addition, the shortest route hop-count algorithm is designed to assist in the handover decision-making process. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed handover strategies outperform the traditional handover strategies in terms of the number of handovers and end-to-end latency.

Key words: mega low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network, walker-delta constellation, self-decision handover, joint decision handover, minimum routing hop

Hongtao ZHU, Xinyu WANG, Zhenyong WANG, Dezhi LI, Qing GUO. Satellite handover strategies based on minimum routing hops for mega LEO satellite networks[J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2026, 37(1): 64-74.

Figures/Tables 14

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Parameter	Value
Number of orbital planes	32
Number of LEO satellites in each orbit	50
Number of satellites	1600
Inclination of satellite/(°)	53
Altitude of satellite orbit/km	550
Satellite beams half angle/(°)	45
Type of constellation	Walker-delta
Simulation time/s	7 200
Simulation interval/s	1
Location of MN	(0°N, 0°E)
Location of CN	(0°N, 40°E)
Satellite Tx power/dBW	18
Satellite Tx max gain/dBi	30
User bandwidth/MHz	5
Carrier frequency/GHz	2 (S-Band)
Terminal type	Handheld
Terminal antenna type	Omnidirectional
Terminal Rx antenna	0 dBi per element
Antenna temperature/K	290
Noise figure/dB	7

Satellite handover strategies based on minimum routing hops for mega LEO satellite networks

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