Evaluation of network centric frequency diversity admission strategies
in a rain affected satellite network
Abstract
To meet the increased bandwidth demand from remote locations, new
satellites are being launched to allow networks to operate at higher
frequencies (i.e., Ka-band – 27.0GHz - 40.0 GHz and V-band 40.0GHz –
75GHz). At these frequencies high availability is challenged by rain
attenuation. Consequently, satellite network operators are offering
hybrid solutions where, during a rain outage, traffic is moved to a
lower frequency secondary heterogeneous satellite network not affected
by rain. This paper evaluates a mobile and network centric handover
and admission strategy using a bespoke simulation model of a rain
affected star topology hybrid satellite network with primary network
operating on Ka band and secondary satellite network operating at a
lower frequency. Results show that a network centric prioritised
queue-based admission strategy provides a reduction in handover failure
probability of about 5% without extra capacity being made available for
the handover of traffic to the secondary network. When queue-based
admission is used in combination with adding extra capacity in the
secondary satellite network a reduction in handover failure probability
of nearly 30% was achieved. However, when more capacity is made
available in the secondary network, the advantages of the network
centric queue-based admission strategy slowly disappear with added
capacity. This means that operators have a clear choice based on whether
they believe that their secondary network has sufficient spare capacity,
or whether in fact this is unlikely and therefore the extra cost of a
queue-based admission strategies should be weighed against loss of
revenue due to lost connections.