A Dynamic Parameter and Protocol-Enhanced Handover Mechanism for Aeronautical Communications under Satellite-Terrestrial Integrated Networks

With the rapid rise in passenger demand and expanding flight routes, in-flight connectivity has become increasingly critical. Existing technologies—satellite communications with broad coverage but limited capacity, and groundbased networks offering high-speed, low-latency connections but constrained by geographic reach—each fall short of delivering seamless service independently. This paper introduces an innovative approach by integrating satellite and ground-based networks through a dynamic parameter and protocol-enhanced handover mechanism tailored for aeronautical communications in satellite terrestrial integrated networks, and can be extended to Internet of Things scenarios such as disater response, remote sensing via unmaned aerial vehicle. Unlike conventional methods, our novel user-controlled location-based handover approach addresses the challenges of high aircraft-LEO satellite mobility and significant signaling latency by optimizing the handover decision process. This method reduces signaling overhead, improves target selection accuracy, and adapts dynamically to environmental variations, overcoming limitations posed by fluctuating satellite signal strength. Formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem, our approach minimizes handover interruption time while ensuring uninterrupted connectivity. Simulation results demonstrate that this approach lowers signaling overhead during handover requests and enhances connectivity throughout the flight, marking a novel step forward in aeronautical communication efficiency. Simulation results show the OLHO scheme achieving an 83.96% connection rate—higher than benchmarks—though at the cost of increased handover frequency, and 25% lower signaling overhead in SAGIN. This shows a clear trade-off between connection rate and handover intensity, where OLHO balances service continuity and stability via location-based handover triggers.