Space Mobile Networks: Satellite as Core and Access Networks for B5G

Satellite communications are perceived as a key enabling technology in 5G and beyond due to their global coverage and network resilience. However, conventional space-terrestrial integrated network approaches cannot avoid long propagation delays, and thus an excessively increased signaling delay for the control plane procedures (e.g., session establishment and handover) is expected. To address this issue, we introduce a novel space mobile network (SMN) architecture in which satellites act on core networks (CNs) and radio access networks (RANs) by provisioning RAN/ CN network functions. Based on the use of SMN, we devised persistent tunnel-based session establishment and cluster-based handover procedures to further reduce the session establishment and handover times, respectively. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed session establishment and handover procedures can reduce the completion times by 7.8-33.2 percent and 19.7-53.7 percent, respectively, compared to the conventional approaches.