**5.1. Simulation parameters**

The simulation parameters used to investigate the performance benefit of the handover mechanism for the space tourist subscriber are shown in **Table 3**. The parameters used to investigate the performance of the cyber – physical cloud access system are shown in **Table 4**.

### **5.2. Discussion of results – space tourist**

The results of performance simulation are presented in this subsection. The performance benefit of the proposed handover mechanism is investigated using the channel capacity and latency as metrics. In addition, the performance benefit of incorporating aerial diversity is investigated using the aggregate channel capacity. The proposed aerial diversity mechanism is used to improve access to cloud content in terrestrial wireless networks.


**Table 3.** Parameters used to investigate the performance of the handover mechanism.



**Table 4.** Simulation parameters – cyber – physical aided cloud access mechanism.

Simulation result for the space vehicle average channel capacity is presented in **Figure 5**. **Figure 5** shows two sub-figures, i.e. a and b. The average channel capacity before and after the incorporation of the proposed handover mechanism is presented in **Figure 5a** and **b**,

**Figure 5.** Average channel capacity of the space vehicle before and after introducing the proposed scheme. (a) Average channel capacity achieved by space vehicle in Mbps in the absence of the proposed handover mechanism. (b) Average channel capacity achieved by space vehicle in Mbps after introducing the proposed handover mechanism.

**Figure 6.** Average latency of the space vehicle before and after introducing the proposed scheme. (a) Average latency achieved by space vehicle without the proposed handover mechanism. (b) Average latency achieved by space vehicle after the incorporation of the proposed handover mechanism.

respectively. Analysis of the result shows that the incorporation of the proposed mechanism enhances channel capacity. This is because of the continuity in data transmission during space vehicle sojourn. It is observed from the results that the channel capacity is enhanced on average by 18.4%.

The result for the latency of the space vehicle is presented in **Figure 6a** and **b**. **Figure 6a** and **b** shows the latency without and with the proposed mechanism, respectively. Results show that the proposed mechanism reduces the latency associated with accessing cloud content by the space vehicle. Analysis shows that the proposed handover mechanism reduces latency on average by 12%.


**Table 5.** Aggregate Channel capacity before and after incorporating aerial diversity.

The investigation also examines how aerial diversity enhances cloud content access. The use of aerial diversity ensures that network congestion does not affect the ability of the space vehicle subscriber to access cloud content. The metric used to investigate the performance benefit of incorporating aerial diversity is the aggregate channel capacity. This is the achieved channel capacity when the access of cloud content requires communications between multiple base stations. This is investigated using the parameters in **Table 4**. The aggregate channel throughput obtained via simulations for two epochs (i.e. epoch 1 and epoch 2) is shown in **Table 5**.

The simulation results in **Table 5** show that incorporating aerial diversity enhances the aggregate channel capacity. The incorporation of aerial diversity enables the delivery of cloud content when the terrestrial wireless network experiences congestion. The aggregate channel capacity is increased as aerial diversity influences data transmission for an increasing number of base stations. This is because the MAV and UAV are deployed in a manner that enables the delivery of cloud content for a larger terrestrial wireless network coverage area. Therefore, aerial diversity enhances the aggregate channel capacity associated with accessing cloud content by the space vehicle subscribers as seen in epochs 1 and 2. Aerial diversity enhances the aggregate channel capacity by 70.4 and 85.2% on average at epoch 1 and epoch 2, respectively.
