Dual Location Area Based Distributed Location Management for Hybrid LEO/MEO Mega Satellite Networks

Location management is the basis for ensuring service continuity in low earth orbit (LEO) satellite mobile communication systems. The dual mobility of LEO satellites and mobile users triggers frequent location update procedures, which will increase the network location management overhead and bring great challenges to network location management, especially in the mega satellite networks. In this paper, we propose a location management technology solution for mega satellite networks, including location management architecture, location area design, location update, and paging procedures. A medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite-assisted location management architecture is proposed to improve the efficiency of location management. It extends the location management control plane from the ground to space and adopts a distributed location management mechanism. A dual location area, including the satellite location area and user location area, is designed to balance the network location update and paging overhead. Based on the dual location area, we systematically design low-overhead location update and paging procedures. Simulation results have verified that the proposed location management technology solution can reduce the total location management overhead and delay by at least 45.8% and 20.8%, respectively.