Optimizing end-to-end propagation delays in hybrid satellite-maritime mobile ad hoc networks

In this paper we provide efficient statistical tools for the prediction of the required number of satellite terrestrial stations in a hybrid Satellite - Mobile Ad Hoc NETwork (MANET). We propose to consider the average statistical behavior of the network. We first analytically estimate the number of hybrid satellite gateway stations (HSs) in a typical cluster. A strategy for the terrestrial path discovery protocol and for the satellite gateway selection is proposed. We then derive the probability density function of the end-to-end propagation delays considering geostationary (GEO), medium (MEO) and low earth orbits (LEO) satellite systems. Numerical results considering several average densities of satellite HSs enable a user to find a trade-off between the costs induced by the number of HSs in the network, the used satellite orbits and the achieved end-to-end propagation delays.