Mobile Communications in a Geosynchronous Regenerative Satellite Mesh (RSM) System

In the past 20 years, mobility has grown to become a salient feature of many communication systems. The demand for mobility is expected to be even more indispensable in the future as end users require greater amounts of data along with their desire for ubiquitous coverage as they move about. Recently, next generation cellular architectures have started providing data communication in the broadband range while preserving the mobile nature of the network. Satellite data communication systems have, however, mostly stayed within the fixed or transportable arena. The capabilities of existing and near-future satellite systems vary substantially by factors such as the types of end users and applications supported, satellite spot beam capabilities, and bandwidths supported. This paper looks at the capability of mobile communications in a geosynchronous regenerative satellite mesh (RSM) system. In particular, the architecture and design of mobility and communications-on-the-move (COTM) will be detailed for the SPACEWAY system, which falls under the RSM architecture. The mobility concept is distributed across the system, involving the space, terminal, and ground segments. Additionally, mobility has been designed to be as automated as possible and to offer high performance at broadband data rates. The concepts and designs presented here can also be considered as a blueprint for future generation satellite systems that would need to support communications-on-the-move