Abstract:

Mobile satellite networks receive extensive attention due to their wide geographical coverage, low communication delay and other advantages. Tremendous research efforts on the development of IP protocol networking technology have been made, and researchers strive to integrate it with terrestrial IP networks. One of the challenges of the converged network is the constant moving of the satellite. Frequent handover of satellite access causes complex mobile management issues. Existing IP mobility management technologies cannot effectively support mobile satellite network handover. In order to efficiently support mobile handover, we introduce the idea of locator/identifier separation into satellite networks, and study handover management issues in the locator/identifier separation architecture. We manage the terminal location through the mapping service system, and make a forwarding table in the previous satellite via the new satellite gateway and the terminal's identifier to handle the mobility handover management. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the mobile IPv4 technology. It cannot only lower the handover latency and reduce binding update overhead or suboptimal routing, but also improve system performance and scalability in satellite networks.

Key words: locator/identifier separation, satellite network, mobility handover management, mobility