Satellite Handover Management via Batched Make-Before-Break Transitions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Managing handovers in satellite communications systems with moving cells is complex due to the high volume of handovers and potential disruptions in data delivery, especially when satellites and user devices move in and out of range, requiring efficient techniques to minimize service disruptions.
Innovation Solution
The satellite communications system employs a distributed resource manager to coordinate handover operations in prioritized batches using make-before-break and break-before-make handover procedures, along with buffer circuitry to manage data streams and path delays, ensuring seamless transitions and minimizing data loss during handovers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If handover operations are managed in a conventional terrestrial system, then the system complexity is low, but the system cannot handle the high volume of handovers required in satellite systems with moving cells
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments handover operations into prioritized batches, dividing the large volume of handovers into manageable groups that can be processed systematically. This segmentation allows the system to handle high handover volumes by processing them in organized batches rather than as a monolithic operation, thereby managing complexity while maintaining productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements make-before-break handover procedures where the incoming satellite connection is established before the outgoing satellite connection is terminated. This preliminary action ensures that handover operations can proceed without service interruption, allowing the system to manage high volumes of handovers efficiently while maintaining service continuity and reducing the perceived complexity for users.
2Reliability
If make-before-break handover is used to maintain continuous data delivery, then service disruption is minimized, but data delivery latency increases due to duplicate data streams
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements mechanisms to detect and discard duplicate data packets that arrive from both incoming and outgoing satellites during make-before-break handover. By identifying and removing redundant data while preserving the original data stream, the system maintains service continuity without permanently incurring the latency penalty of duplicate transmission, thus recovering from the time loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent ensures continuous data delivery by maintaining active connections with both incoming and outgoing satellites simultaneously during handover. This continuity of useful action allows data to flow without interruption through at least one active path, ensuring service reliability while the system manages the temporal overhead of maintaining multiple concurrent connections.
3Loss of time
If break-before-make handover is used to reduce data delivery latency, then service disruption increases due to connection interruption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements buffer management mechanisms that pre-position data packets in buffers before handover occurs. This preliminary buffering action ensures that data can be temporarily stored and forwarded without interruption even when the satellite connection is briefly broken, thereby maintaining service continuity while still achieving faster handover transitions compared to make-before-break approaches.
4Productivity
If centralized handover management is implemented to coordinate batched handovers, then handover efficiency improves, but system complexity increases due to centralized control requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple handover operations into coordinated batches that are managed through centralized control logic. By combining individual handover requests into grouped batches and processing them through unified management procedures, the system achieves higher overall efficiency through economies of scale while the centralized structure provides systematic coordination that simplifies the management of complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A satellite system may have a constellation of communications satellites that provides services to users with user devices such as portable electronic devices and home and office equipment. The constellation of satellites may include low-earth orbit satellites or other non-geostationary satellites having coverage areas that move across the surface of the Earth as the satellites orbit the Earth. The system may have gateways that communicate with the user devices as satellites move into and out of range. Computing equipment at a gateway or associated metropolitan point of presence may direct the gateways to handover communications sessions with the user devices from an outgoing satellite to an incoming satellite. Handover operations may involve handovers in prioritized batches, make-before-break handover procedures, and break-before-make handover procedures.