Multi-Satellite Beam Hopping Based on Load Balancing and Interference Avoidance for NGSO Satellite Communication Systems

Due to the non-uniform distribution of the ground traffic demand and the high mobility of non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellites, how to make full use of the limited beam resources to serve users flexibly and efficiently is a brand-new challenge for NGSO communication systems. In order to achieve efficient spectrum utilization, the combination of full frequency multiplexing and beam hopping is a major trend in future satellite communication systems. However, conventional beam hopping methods are mainly based on geostationary satellites, which do not take into account the interference between satellites. This paper proposes a multi-satellite beam hopping algorithm based on load balancing and interference avoidance, which takes advantage of the multiple coverage features in the NGSO constellation and avoids intra-satellite interference and inter-satellite interference by designing beam-hopping patterns with spatial isolation characteristics. In particular, we decompose the multi-satellite beam hopping problem into three sub-problems, which are the multi-satellite load balancing problem, the single-satellite beam hopping pattern design problem, and the multi-satellite interference avoidance problem. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method reduces the load gap among satellites by about 72.5% and the average traffic satisfaction rate can reach 81.4%. Besides, our method has the lowest unmet capacity compared with other benchmarks, achieving better offered-requested data match.