Position-based DVB-RCS Spotbeam Handover in Vehicular Geostationary Satellite Networks

High-speed Internet access is already a commodity in developed urban areas. We have also witnessed an increase in the number of airlines, railways, and maritime passengers that expect communication services while outside the coverage of terrestrial networks. Satellite systems are viewed as viable access providers for collective user communities on board aircraft, high-speed trains, and maritime vessels outside the coverage of terrestrial communication infrastructure. This article focuses on minimal mobility adaptations required by the ETSI DVB-RCS specification. First the performance of the existing DVB-RCS burst synchronisation is analysed in mobile vehicular networks. Then, a position-based seamless spotbeam handover mechanism is proposed, and its performance is analysed in terms of handover delay and handover failure rate using a ns-based packet-level simulator of DVB-RCS specification in a multi-spotbeam, multi-satellite geostationary constellation.