Teletraffic analysis of an integrated satellite/terrestrial mobile radio system based on nongeostationary satellites

It is likely that global mobile communications will call for interoperability between terrestrial and satellite systems based on nongeostationary constellations. In view of the high mobility of the satellite cells, the teletraffic analysis of the resulting integrated system appears a complex problem. The performance analysis of such a network, where moving satellite cells overlay clusters of terrestrial cells for the provision of services to dual-mode and satellite-only mobile terminals is presented. The approach followed makes use of results from studies of hierarchical mobile networks and of recent results from the teletraffic analysis of nongeostationary satellite mobile radio systems. In particular, the use of Markov-modulated Poisson-processes to model overflow traffic, combined with an iterative approach used in the analysis of the mobile satellite system, has enabled the provision of measures for blocking, handover failures, overflow traffic rejection and forced terminations when different overflow strategies are employed. Analytical work is supported by examples