Method and apparatus for dynamically controlling hand-off thresholds in a satellite cellular communication system

摘要

In cellular communication systems, hand-offs are performed to maintain links as subscriber units (110) and beams move relative to each other. The hand-off determination procedure (500) is performed in overlap regions (240, 340). Candidate beams are identified and hand-off types are determined based on the satellite (120) associated with the candidate beam. Thresholds are established and changed to optimize a hand-off request determination procedure (500). Two hand-off types are considered. An inter-satellite hand-off is requested (514) when the current beam and the candidate beam are on different satellites (120). An intra-satellite hand-off is requested (510) when the current beam and the candidate beam are on the same satellite (120). Thresholds are dynamically changed and algorithms are used to minimize the number of inter-satellite hand-offs.