Differentiated Services Driven Distributed Inter-Satellite Handover Management in Mega Satellite Networks

Inter-satellite handover management is critical to ensuring seamless service continuity and quality of service (QoS) in mega-scale satellite networks. However, traditional ground-centric handover architectures struggle with excessive signaling overhead and latency as networks scale to accommodate emerging services (e.g., remote control, broadband civil aviation, personal broadband). To address these differentiated services, we propose a space-ground distributed inter-satellite handover control architecture (SGDISHCA) that migrates radio resource control (RRC) and authentication management function (AMF) to satellites, establishing a distributed control paradigm. Specifically, we analyze the influence of the minimum elevation angle between the ground location area and the satellite on the delay and handover times, and establish the satellite-location area correlation model. According to the model, we design an on-demand allocation algorithm that dynamically aligns channel allocation rates with heterogeneous service demand rates, jointly optimizing QoS guarantees and resource efficiency. Through the analysis of simulation results, we validate that our proposed scheme reduces handover delays and signaling overhead. Furthermore, our scheme exhibits a remarkable enhancement in user satisfaction and optimization of system resource utilization. We also investigate the effect of ground station distribution on network performance and find that the network performance exhibits marked improvements with fewer and denser ground stations, facilitated by the on-demand allocation algorithm.