Status: attic
Analyzing Handover Strategies for LEO Satellites in Vehicular Networks
MA: Master's Thesis (or Diploma Thesis / Diplomarbeit)

In order to provide low-latency high-throughput Internet access all over the world, companies like SpaceX, Amazon, and OneWeb currently deploy and maintain Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations. Thousands of small satellites orbit Earth at an altitude of roughly 500km. Such a system is perfect for supporting vehicular networks by means of providing Internet access even in regions in which cellular communication technologies like LTE or 5G are not available. For evaluating LEO satellite supported vehicular networks, the simulator space_Veins is currently developed by us. It is based on Veins which simulates Earth’s surface as a plane without curvature. Space_Veins integrates LEO satellites in a Veins simulation, given a Two-line Element (TLE) set, relative to a well-defined Satellite Observer Position (SOP) in the simulation.
Goals of the thesis
Due to the advanced mobility of LEO satellites, ground stations, vehicles in this scenario, can only communicate with a single LEO satellite for a few minutes. Consequently, handover strategies are required such that vehicles can maintain a constant connection to the LEO satellite constellation. Therefore, this thesis is about implementing different handover strategies and comparing their performance in a simulation study.
Possible milestones are as follows:
- Getting familiar with the existing simulation environment and the research area
- Literature research on handover strategies for LEO satellite constellation or related network technologies like 5G
- Implementation of different handover strategies in space_Veins
- Evaluation of the implemented handover strategies in a hybrid LEO satellites and vehicular network by means of a simulation study
Keywords
C++, Network Simulation, Vehicular Networking, LEO Satellite, Handover Strategies
Literature
[1] O. Kodheli et al., “Satellite Communications in the New Space Era: A Survey and Future Challenges,” IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 70–109, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2020.3028247
[2] Mario Franke, Florian Klingler and Christoph Sommer, “Poster: Simulating Hybrid LEO Satellite and V2X Networks,” Proceedings of 13th IEEE Vehicular Networking Conference (VNC 2021), November 2021. (to appear)
https://www.cms-labs.org/bib/franke2021simulating/
[3] S. Park and J. Kim, “Trends in LEO Satellite Handover Algorithms,” 2021 Twelfth International Conference on Ubiquitous and Future Networks (ICUFN), 2021, pp. 422-425, https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUFN49451.2021.9528738
[4] Y. I. Demir, M. S. J. Solaija and H. Arslan, “On the Performance of Handover Mechanisms for Non-Terrestrial Networks,” 2022 IEEE 95th Vehicular Technology Conference: (VTC2022-Spring), 2022, pp. 1-5, https://doi.org/10.1109/VTC2022-Spring54318.2022.9860505