Performance of an Inter-segment Handover Protocol in an IP-Based Terrestrial/Satellite Mobile Communications Network

摘要

The convergence of the mobile communications and Internet technologies has become a major driving force in the next generation telecommunications world. In order to realise the dream of global personal communications and allow the users to access information anywhere, at any time, the integration of terrestrial and satellite communications networks becomes necessary. Because the inter-segment handover is regarded as a key element to implement the seamless integration of terrestrial/satellite communications networks, it has been placed among top issues in the research of global personal communications. In this paper, by adopting mobile-IP, intelligent network and dual-mode mobile terminal technologies, the architecture of an IP-based integrated terrestrial/satellite mobile communications network is proposed on the infusion of mobile communications and Internet technologies. Based on this architecture, an inter-segment handover protocol is described, and its performance is analysed.