3,582 research outputs found
Architectures and Key Technical Challenges for 5G Systems Incorporating Satellites
Satellite Communication systems are a promising solution to extend and
complement terrestrial networks in unserved or under-served areas. This aspect
is reflected by recent commercial and standardisation endeavours. In
particular, 3GPP recently initiated a Study Item for New Radio-based, i.e., 5G,
Non-Terrestrial Networks aimed at deploying satellite systems either as a
stand-alone solution or as an integration to terrestrial networks in mobile
broadband and machine-type communication scenarios. However, typical satellite
channel impairments, as large path losses, delays, and Doppler shifts, pose
severe challenges to the realisation of a satellite-based NR network. In this
paper, based on the architecture options currently being discussed in the
standardisation fora, we discuss and assess the impact of the satellite channel
characteristics on the physical and Medium Access Control layers, both in terms
of transmitted waveforms and procedures for enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB)
and NarrowBand-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) applications. The proposed analysis
shows that the main technical challenges are related to the PHY/MAC procedures,
in particular Random Access (RA), Timing Advance (TA), and Hybrid Automatic
Repeat reQuest (HARQ) and, depending on the considered service and
architecture, different solutions are proposed.Comment: Submitted to Transactions on Vehicular Technologies, April 201
Integration of Satellites in 5G through LEO Constellations
The standardization of 5G systems is entering in its critical phase, with
3GPP that will publish the PHY standard by June 2017. In order to meet the
demanding 5G requirements both in terms of large throughput and global
connectivity, Satellite Communications provide a valuable resource to extend
and complement terrestrial networks. In this context, we consider a
heterogeneous architecture in which a LEO mega-constellation satellite system
provides backhaul connectivity to terrestrial 5G Relay Nodes, which create an
on-ground 5G network. Since large delays and Doppler shifts related to
satellite channels pose severe challenges to terrestrial-based systems, in this
paper we assess their impact on the future 5G PHY and MAC layer procedures. In
addition, solutions are proposed for Random Access, waveform numerology, and
HARQ procedures.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM) 201
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
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
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