11,692 research outputs found
SDN/NFV-enabled satellite communications networks: opportunities, scenarios and challenges
In the context of next generation 5G networks, the satellite industry is clearly committed to revisit and revamp the role of satellite communications. As major drivers in the evolution of (terrestrial) fixed and mobile networks, Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) technologies are also being positioned as central technology enablers towards improved and more flexible integration of satellite and terrestrial segments, providing satellite network further service innovation and business agility by advanced network resources management techniques. Through the analysis of scenarios and use cases, this paper provides a description of the benefits that SDN/NFV technologies can bring into satellite communications towards 5G. Three scenarios are presented and analysed to delineate different potential improvement areas pursued through the introduction of SDN/NFV technologies in the satellite ground segment domain. Within each scenario, a number of use cases are developed to gain further insight into specific capabilities and to identify the technical challenges stemming from them.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial Communication Networks for the Maritime Internet of Things: Key Technologies, Opportunities, and Challenges
With the rapid development of marine activities, there has been an increasing
number of maritime mobile terminals, as well as a growing demand for high-speed
and ultra-reliable maritime communications to keep them connected.
Traditionally, the maritime Internet of Things (IoT) is enabled by maritime
satellites. However, satellites are seriously restricted by their high latency
and relatively low data rate. As an alternative, shore & island-based base
stations (BSs) can be built to extend the coverage of terrestrial networks
using fourth-generation (4G), fifth-generation (5G), and beyond 5G services.
Unmanned aerial vehicles can also be exploited to serve as aerial maritime BSs.
Despite of all these approaches, there are still open issues for an efficient
maritime communication network (MCN). For example, due to the complicated
electromagnetic propagation environment, the limited geometrically available BS
sites, and rigorous service demands from mission-critical applications,
conventional communication and networking theories and methods should be
tailored for maritime scenarios. Towards this end, we provide a survey on the
demand for maritime communications, the state-of-the-art MCNs, and key
technologies for enhancing transmission efficiency, extending network coverage,
and provisioning maritime-specific services. Future challenges in developing an
environment-aware, service-driven, and integrated satellite-air-ground MCN to
be smart enough to utilize external auxiliary information, e.g., sea state and
atmosphere conditions, are also discussed
Satellite-based delivery of educational content to geographically isolated communities: A service based approach
Enabling learning for members of geographically
isolated communities presents benefits in terms of
promoting regional development and cost savings for governments and companies. However, notwithstanding recent advances in e-Learning, from both technological and pedagogical perspectives, there are very few, if any,
recognised methodologies for user-led design of satellite-based e-learning infrastructures. In this paper, we present a methodology for designing a satellite and wireless based network infrastructure and learning services to support distance learning for such isolated communities. This methodology entails (a) the involvement of community members in the development of targeted learning services from an early stage, and (b) a service-oriented approach to learning solution deployment. Results show, that, while the technological premises of distance learning can be
accommodated by hybrid satellite/wireless infrastructures,this has to be complemented with (a) high-quality audio–visual educational material, and (b) the opportunity for community members to interact with other community
members either as groups (common-room oriented scenarios) or individuals (home-based scenarios), thus providing an impetus for learner engagement in both formal and informal activities
Energy efficient hybrid satellite terrestrial 5G networks with software defined features
In order to improve the manageability and adaptability
of future 5G wireless networks, the software orchestration mechanism,
named software defined networking (SDN) with Control
and User plane (C/U-plane) decoupling, has become one of the
most promising key techniques. Based on these features, the hybrid
satellite terrestrial network is expected to support flexible
and customized resource scheduling for both massive machinetype-
communication (MTC) and high-quality multimedia requests
while achieving broader global coverage, larger capacity and lower
power consumption. In this paper, an end-to-end hybrid satellite
terrestrial network is proposed and the performance metrics,
e. g., coverage probability, spectral and energy efficiency (SE and
EE), are analysed in both sparse networks and ultra-dense networks.
The fundamental relationship between SE and EE is investigated,
considering the overhead costs, fronthaul of the gateway
(GW), density of small cells (SCs) and multiple quality-ofservice
(QoS) requirements. Numerical results show that compared
with current LTE networks, the hybrid system with C/U split
can achieve approximately 40% and 80% EE improvement in
sparse and ultra-dense networks respectively, and greatly enhance
the coverage. Various resource management schemes, bandwidth
allocation methods, and on-off approaches are compared, and the
applications of the satellite in future 5G networks with software
defined features are proposed
Role of satellite communications in 5G ecosystem: perspectives and challenges
The next generation of mobile radio communication systems – so-called 5G – will
provide some major changes to those generations to date. The ability to cope with huge
increases in data traffic at reduced latencies and improved quality of user experience
together with a major reduction in energy usage are big challenges. In addition,
future systems will need to embody connections to billions of objects – the so-called
Internet of Things (IoT) which raises new challenges.Visions of 5G are now available
from regions across the world and research is ongoing towards new standards. The
consensus is a flatter architecture that adds a dense network of small cells operating in
the millimetre wave bands and which are adaptable and software controlled. But what
is the place for satellites in such a vision? The chapter examines several potential
roles for satellites in 5G including coverage extension, IoT, providing resilience,
content caching and multi-cast, and the integrated architecture. Furthermore, the
recent advances in satellite communications together with the challenges associated
with the use of satellite in the integrated satellite-terrestrial architecture are also
discussed
Joint Satellite Gateway Placement and Routing for Integrated Satellite-Terrestrial Networks
With the increasing attention to the integrated satellite-terrestrial
networks (ISTNs), the satellite gateway placement problem becomes of paramount
importance. The resulting network performance may vary depending on the
different design strategies. In this paper, a joint satellite gateway placement
and routing strategy for the terrestrial network is proposed to minimize the
overall cost of gateway deployment and traffic routing, while adhering to the
average delay requirement for traffic demands. Although traffic routing and
gateway placement can be solved independently, the dependence between the
routing decisions for different demands makes it more realistic to solve an
aggregated model instead. We develop a mixed-integer linear program (MILP)
formulation for the problem. We relax the integrality constraints to achieve a
linear program (LP) which reduces time-complexity at the expense of a
sub-optimal solution. We further propose a variant of the proposed model to
balance the load between the selected gateways.Comment: 6 pages, In Proceedings of IEEE ICC 2020.
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9149175 N. Torkzaban, A. Gholami, J. S.
Baras and C. Papagianni, "Joint Satellite Gateway Placement and Routing for
Integrated Satellite-Terrestrial Networks," ICC 2020 - 2020 IEEE
International Conference on Communications (ICC), Dublin, Ireland, 2020, pp.
1-6. doi: 10.1109/ICC40277.2020.914917
Satellite Networks: Architectures, Applications, and Technologies
Since global satellite networks are moving to the forefront in enhancing the national and global information infrastructures due to communication satellites' unique networking characteristics, a workshop was organized to assess the progress made to date and chart the future. This workshop provided the forum to assess the current state-of-the-art, identify key issues, and highlight the emerging trends in the next-generation architectures, data protocol development, communication interoperability, and applications. Presentations on overview, state-of-the-art in research, development, deployment and applications and future trends on satellite networks are assembled
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