Proceedings of the Third International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC 1993)

Satellite-based mobile communications systems provide voice and data communications to users over a vast geographic area. The users may communicate via mobile or hand-held terminals, which may also provide access to terrestrial cellular communications services. While the first and second International Mobile Satellite Conferences (IMSC) mostly concentrated on technical advances, this Third IMSC also focuses on the increasing worldwide commercial activities in Mobile Satellite Services. Because of the large service areas provided by such systems, it is important to consider political and regulatory issues in addition to technical and user requirements issues. Topics covered include: the direct broadcast of audio programming from satellites; spacecraft technology; regulatory and policy considerations; advanced system concepts and analysis; propagation; and user requirements and applications

Technology Directions for the 21st Century

New technologies will unleash the huge capacity of fiber-optic cable to meet growing demands for bandwidth. Companies will continue to replace private networks with public network bandwidth-on-demand. Although asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is the transmission technology favored by many, its penetration will be slower than anticipated. Hybrid networks - e.g., a mix of ATM, frame relay, and fast Ethernet - may predominate, both as interim and long-term solutions, based on factors such as availability, interoperability, and cost. Telecommunications equipment and services prices will decrease further due to increased supply and more competition. Explosive Internet growth will continue, requiring additional backbone transmission capacity and enhanced protocols, but it is not clear who will fund the upgrade. Within ten years, space-based constellations of satellites in Low Earth orbit (LEO) will serve mobile users employing small, low-power terminals. 'Little LEO's' will provide packet transmission services and geo-position determination. 'Big LEO's' will function as global cellular telephone networks, with some planning to offer video and interactive multimedia services. Geosynchronous satellites also are proposed for mobile voice grade links and high-bandwidth services. NASA may benefit from resulting cost reductions in components, space hardware, launch services, and telecommunications services

Load balancing in heterogeneous wireless communications networks. Optimized load aware vertical handovers in satellite-terrestrial hybrid networks incorporating IEEE 802.21 media independent handover and cognitive algorithms.

Heterogeneous wireless networking technologies such as satellite, UMTS, WiMax and WLAN are being used to provide network access for both voice and data services. In big cities, the densely populated areas like town centres, shopping centres and train stations may have coverage of multiple wireless networks. Traditional Radio Access Technology (RAT) selection algorithms are mainly based on the ¿Always Best Connected¿ paradigm whereby the mobile nodes are always directed towards the available network which has the strongest and fastest link. Hence a large number of mobile users may be connected to the more common UMTS while the other networks like WiMax and WLAN would be underutilised, thereby creating an unbalanced load across these different wireless networks. This high variation among the load across different co-located networks may cause congestion on overloaded network leading to high call blocking and call dropping probabilities. This can be alleviated by moving mobile users from heavily loaded networks to least loaded networks. This thesis presents a novel framework for load balancing in heterogeneous wireless networks incorporating the IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover (MIH). The framework comprises of novel load-aware RAT selection techniques and novel network load balancing mechanism. Three new different load balancing algorithms i.e. baseline, fuzzy and neural-fuzzy algorithms have also been presented in this thesis that are used by the framework for efficient load balancing across the different co-located wireless networks. A simulation model developed in NS2 validates the performance of the proposed load balancing framework. Different attributes like load distribution in all wireless networks, handover latencies, packet drops, throughput at mobile nodes and network utilization have been observed to evaluate the effects of load balancing using different scenarios. The simulation results indicate that with load balancing the performance efficiency improves as the overloaded situation is avoided by load balancing

Integrated satellite-terrestrial connectivity for autonomous ships:Survey and future research directions

An autonomous vessel uses multiple different radio technologies such as satellites, mobile networks and dedicated narrowband systems, to connect to other ships, services, and the remote operations center (ROC). In-ship communication is mainly implemented with wired technologies but also wireless links can be used. In this survey paper, we provide a short overview of autonomous and remote-controlled systems. This paper reviews 5G-related standardization in the maritime domain, covering main use cases and both the role of autonomous ships and that of people onboard. We discuss the concept of a connectivity manager, an intelligent entity that manages complex set of technologies, integrating satellite and terrestrial technologies together, ensuring robust in-ship connections and ship-to-outside connections in any environment. This survey paper describes the architecture and functionalities of connectivity management required for an autonomous ship to be able to operate globally. As a specific case example, we have implemented a research environment consisting of ship simulators with connectivity components. Our simulation results on the effects of delays to collision avoidance confirm the role of reliable connectivity for safety. Finally, we outline future research directions for autonomous ship connectivity research, providing ideas for further work

Proceedings of the Second International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC 1990)

Presented here are the proceedings of the Second International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC), held June 17-20, 1990 in Ottawa, Canada. Topics covered include future mobile satellite communications concepts, aeronautical applications, modulation and coding, propagation and experimental systems, mobile terminal equipment, network architecture and control, regulatory and policy considerations, vehicle antennas, and speech compression

Operational support systems for satellite communications

The role of satellite communications is changing from providing bandwidth linking network operators interconnections towards providing IP enabled communications to end users. This migration from few high-value routes towards many low-value routes means that integration and automation of processes with terrestrial networks becomes critical in driving down unit costs. Integration and automation is necessary on all planes: user, control and management. In satellite communications, management aspects, underpinned by Operational Support Systems (OSS) have received the least research attention, making this a valuable topic for study. In most areas, OSS for satellite systems are similar to other domains. However there are some notable areas of difference which have been the focus of this research. The eTOM business framework, developed by the TMF, has been used to highlight aspects of OSS unique to satellite. Since satellite capacity represents the highest operational cost of a satellite route, effective management while minimising the overhead traffic is critical. The transmission of IP packets is assumed and the real-time measurement of QoS parameters such as packet delay and loss emerged as the most important differences. A number of approaches to QoS measurement are feasible, however the use of trace packets is most promising especially for high network loads. An experiment compares the results from simulations, mathematical models and from a test network, using Poisson and self-similar traffic flows. The relationship between measurement accuracy and trace packet intensity is explored and the measurement response time to steps in traffic load is estimated. It is discovered that measurement accuracy improves as the queue load increases, in contrast to alternative approaches such as sampling of user packets. The response time to steps depends upon the degree of self-similarity and is generally longer than the times recommended by standards. A pragmatic approach to management of different modes is proposed where the measurement method is changed depending on the load

High-Throughput Air-to-Ground Connectivity for Aircraft

Permanent connectivity to the Internet has become the defacto standard in the second decade of the 21st century. However, on-board aircraft connectivity is still limited. While the number of airlines offering in-flight connectivity increases, the current performance is insufficient to satisfy several hundreds of passengers simultaneously. There are several options to connect aircraft to the ground, i.e. direct air-to-ground, satellites and relaying via air-to-air links. However, each single solution is insufficient. The direct air-to-ground coverage is limited to the continent and coastal regions, while the satellite links are limited in the minimum size of the spot beams and air-to-air links need to be combined with a link to the ground. Moreover, even if a direct air-to-ground or satellite link is available, the peak throughput offered on each link is rarely achieved, as the capacity needs to be shared with other aircraft flying in the same coverage area. The main challenge in achieving a high throughput per aircraft lies in the throughput allocation. All aircraft should receive a fair share of the available throughput. More specifically, as an aircraft contains a network itself, a weighted share according to the aircraft size should be provided. To address this problem, an integrated air-to-ground network, which is able to provide a high throughput to aircraft, is proposed here. Therefore, this work introduces a weighted-fair throughput allocation scheme to provide such a desired allocation. While various aspects of aircraft connectivity are studied in literature, this work is the first to address an integrated air-to-ground network to provide high-throughput connectivity to aircraft. This work models the problem of throughput allocation as a mixed integer linear program. Two throughput allocation schemes are proposed, a centralized optimal solution and a distributed heuristic solution. For the optimal solution, two different objectives are introduced, a max-min-based and a threshold-based objective. The optimal solution is utilized as a benchmark for the achievable throughput for small scenarios, while the heuristic solution offers a distributed approach and can process scenarios with a higher number of aircraft. Additionally, an option for weighted-fair throughput allocation is included. Hence, large aircraft obtain a larger share of the throughput than smaller ones. This leads to fair throughput allocation with respect to the size of the aircraft. To analyze the performance of throughput allocation in the air-to-ground network, this work introduces an air-to-ground network model. It models the network realistically, but independent from specific network implementations, such as 5G or WiFi. It is also adaptable to different scenarios. The aircraft network is studied based on captured flight traces. Extensive and representative parameter studies are conducted, including, among others, different link setups, geographic scenarios, aircraft capabilities, link distances and link capacities. The results show that the throughput can be distributed optimally during high-aircraft-density times using the optimal solution and close to optimal using the heuristic solution. The mean throughput during these times in the optimal reference scenario with low Earth orbit satellites is 20 Mbps via direct air-to-ground links and 4 Mbps via satellite links, which corresponds to 10.7% and 1.9% of the maximum link throughput, respectively. Nevertheless, during low-aircraft-density times, which are less challenging, the throughput can reach more than 200 Mbps. Therefore, the challenge is on providing a high throughput during high-aircraft-density times. In the larger central European scenario, using the heuristic scheme, a minimum of 22.9 Mbps, i.e. 3.2% of the maximum capacity, can be provided to all aircraft during high-aircraft-density times. Moreover, the critical parameters to obtain a high throughput are presented. For instance, this work shows that multi-hop air-to-air links are dispensable for aircraft within direct air-to-ground coverage. While the computation time of the optimal solution limits the number of aircraft in the scenario, larger scenarios can be studied using the heuristic scheme. The results using the weighted-fair throughput allocation show that the introduction of weights enables a user-fair throughput allocation instead of an aircraft-fair throughput allocation. As a conclusion, using the air-to-ground model and the two introduced throughput allocation schemes, the achievable weighted-fair throughput per aircraft and the respective link choices can be quantified

Identification of Technologies for Provision of Future Aeronautical Communications

This report describes the process, findings, and recommendations of the second of three phases of the Future Communications Study (FCS) technology investigation conducted by NASA Glenn Research Center and ITT Advanced Engineering & Sciences Division for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FCS is a collaborative research effort between the FAA and Eurocontrol to address frequency congestion and spectrum depletion for safety critical airground communications. The goal of the technology investigation is to identify technologies that can support the longterm aeronautical mobile communication operating concept. A derived set of evaluation criteria traceable to the operating concept document is presented. An adaptation of the analytical hierarchy process is described and recommended for selecting candidates for detailed evaluation. Evaluations of a subset of technologies brought forward from the prescreening process are provided. Five of those are identified as candidates with the highest potential for continental airspace solutions in L-band (P-34, W-CDMA, LDL, B-VHF, and E-TDMA). Additional technologies are identified as best performers in the unique environments of remote/oceanic airspace in the satellite bands (Inmarsat SBB and a custom satellite solution) and the airport flight domain in C-band (802.16e). Details of the evaluation criteria, channel models, and the technology evaluations are provided in appendixes

Proceedings of the Mobile Satellite Conference

A satellite-based mobile communications system provides voice and data communications to mobile users over a vast geographic area. The technical and service characteristics of mobile satellite systems (MSSs) are presented and form an in-depth view of the current MSS status at the system and subsystem levels. Major emphasis is placed on developments, current and future, in the following critical MSS technology areas: vehicle antennas, networking, modulation and coding, speech compression, channel characterization, space segment technology and MSS experiments. Also, the mobile satellite communications needs of government agencies are addressed, as is the MSS potential to fulfill them