Satellite constellation design for 5G wireless networks of mobile communications

Summary Satellite constellation design plays an important role in satellite networks. Network constellation system design can affect the effectiveness of current improvements of the communications link and the management of the entire network. The power requirement of the mobile stations and ground stations is very high in a geostationary Earth orbit communication system, which means the terrestrial terminal is hard to be made handheld for fifth generation mobile communications. The emergence of nongeostationary orbit satellites such as low Earth orbit satellites greatly compensates for the disadvantage of geostationary Earth orbit satellites. Based on the classical constellation design method, the orthogonal circular orbit constellation is proposed. The design objectives considered here are the following: global Earth coverage by low Earth orbit satellites, the duration of continuously covering one mobile station by one satellite is more than 9.57 min, the access satellite link duration time of the mobile station is more than 4.79 min, and the number of satellites and orbits is to be minimum.