Predicting Starlink’s target satellite during handover

Ascertain which satellite SpaceX Starlink selects as the target for each user equipment handover given the contemporaneous set of candidate satellites with elevation angle greater than 25 degrees and other relevant factors, to enable accurate prediction of the handover target.

Background

To build an outage predictor, the authors use satellite orbital data (TLE) and weather inputs but lack visibility into the specific satellite chosen at each handover. Because the handover target is not known, they include all satellites above 25° elevation in the training data as potential candidates.

Identifying or reliably predicting the chosen satellite would improve outage forecasting and allow SARA to prepare more accurately for imminent disruptions caused by handovers.