Cooperative User-Scheduling and Resource Allocation Optimization for Intelligent Reflecting Surface Enhanced LEO Satellite Communication

Lower Earth Orbit(LEO) satellite becomes an important part of complementing terrestrial communication due to its lower orbital altitude and smaller propagation delay than Geostationary satellite. However, the LEO satellite communication system cannot meet the requirements of users when the satellite-terrestrial link is blocked by obstacles. To solve this problem, we introduce Intelligent reflect surface(IRS) for improving the achievable rate of terrestrial users in LEO satellite communication. We investigated joint IRS scheduling, user scheduling, power and bandwidth allocation(JIRPB) optimization algorithm for improving LEO satellite system throughput.The optimization problem of joint user scheduling and resource allocation is formulated as a non-convex optimization problem. To cope with this problem, the nonconvex optimization problem is divided into resource allocation optimization sub-problem and scheduling optimization sub-problem firstly. Second, we optimize the resource allocation sub-problem via alternating direction multiplier method(ADMM) and scheduling sub-problem via Lagrangian dual method repeatedly.Third, we prove that the proposed resource allocation algorithm based ADMM approaches sublinear convergence theoretically. Finally, we demonstrate that the proposed JIRPB optimization algorithm improves the LEO satellite communication system throughput.

Channel Correlation Based User Grouping Algorithm for Nonlinear Precoding Satellite Communication System

Low Earth Orbit(LEO)multibeam satellites will be widely used in the next generation of satellite communication systems,whose inter-beam interference will inevitably limit the performance of the whole system.Nonlinear precoding such as Tomlinson-Harashima precoding(THP)algorithm has been proved to be a promising technology to solve this problem,which has smaller noise amplification effect compared with linear precoding.However,the similarity of different user channels(defined as channel correlation)will degrade the performance of THP algorithm.In this paper,we qualitatively analyze the inter-beam interference in the whole process of LEO satellite over a specific coverage area,and the impact of channel correlation on Signal-to-Noise Ratio(SNR)of receivers when THP is applied.One user grouping algorithm is proposed based on the analysis of channel correlation,which could decrease the number of users with high channel correlation in each precoding group,thus improve the performance of THP.Furthermore,our algorithm is designed under the premise of co-frequency deployment and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing(OFDM),which leads to more users under severe inter-beam interference compared to the existing research on geostationary orbit satellites broadcasting systems.Simulation results show that the proposed user grouping algorithm possesses higher channel capacity and better bit error rate(BER)performance in high SNR conditions relative to existing works.

Satellite Communications with 5G, B5G, and 6G: Challenges and Prospects

Satellite communications, pivotal for global connectivity, are increasingly converging with cutting-edge mobile networks, notably 5G, B5G, and 6G. This amalgamation heralds the promise of universal, high-velocity communication, yet it is not without its challenges. Paramount concerns encompass spectrum allocation, the harmonization of network architectures, and inherent latency issues in satellite transmissions. Potential mitigations, such as dynamic spectrum sharing and the deployment of edge computing, are explored as viable solutions. Looking ahead, the advent of quantum communications within satellite frameworks and the integration of AI spotlight promising research trajectories. These advancements aim to foster a seamless and synergistic coexistence between satellite communications and next-gen mobile networks.

Beam Position and Beam Hopping Design for LEO Satellite Communications

The numbers of beam positions(BPs)and time slots for beam hopping(BH)dominate the latency of LEO satellite communications.Aiming at minimizing the number of BPs subject to a predefined requirement on the radius of BP,a low-complexity user density-based BP design scheme is proposed,where the original problem is decomposed into two subproblems,with the first one to find the sparsest user and the second one to determine the corresponding best BP.In particular,for the second subproblem,a user selection and smallest BP radius algorithm is proposed,where the nearby users are sequentially selected until the constraint of the given BP radius is no longer satisfied.These two subproblems are iteratively solved until all the users are selected.To further reduce the BP radius,a duplicated user removal algorithm is proposed to decrease the number of the users covered by two or more BPs.Aiming at minimizing the number of time slots subject to the no co-channel interference(CCI)constraint and the traffic demand constraint,a low-complexity CCI-free BH design scheme is proposed,where the BPs having difficulty in satisfying the constraints are considered to be illuminated in priory.Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed schemes.

Robust or nonrobust: On MC-DS-CDMA acquisition in LEO satellite communications

Low Earth Orbit(LEO)satellite communications can provide global coverage in the sixth generation communication(6G)networks.To combat the strong Partial Band Interferences(PBIs)and multipath fading in LEO satellite communication systems,the Multicarrier Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access(MC-DS-CDMA)technique is a promising alternative to the traditional Single-carrier Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access(SC-DS-CDMA)system for its advantages of high bandwidth efficiency,superior interference rejection capability,and low complexity of parallel signal processing.However,limited studies have been conducted on the performance analysis of MC-DS-CDMA acquisition systems in the presence of a large Doppler shift,a unique characteristic of LEO satellite communications.To bridge this gap,we investigate the performance of MC-DS-CDMA systems with two-dimensional acquisition and noncoherent equal gain combining over Rician fading channel in the presence of the Doppler shift and PBIs.The performance metrics are detection probability and Mean Square Error(MSE)of the Doppler factor and delay.Specifically,we derive the closed-form expressions for the MSE and the Probability Density Function(PDF)of the acquisition decision variable and obtain the detection probability.We conduct extensive numerical experiments to verify the theoretical analysis and performance gain of MC-DSCDMA over the SC-DS-CDMA.The results show that MC-DS-CDMA with two-dimensional acquisition is more robust to multipath Rician fading than SC-DS-CDMA.Moreover,MC-DS-CDMA outperforms SC-DS-CDMA regarding the detection probability and MSE when combating the strong PBIs.

Coded Multicasting for Content Delivery over Predictable Time-Varying Satellite Communication Networks

With the development of astronautic technology, communication satellites now have a tremendous gain in both quantity and quality, and have already shown their capability on multi-functional converged communication other than telecommunication. Under this circumstance, increasing the transmission efficiency of satellite communication network becomes a top priority. In this paper, we focus on content delivery service on satellite networks, where each ground station may have prefetched some file fragments. We cast this problem into a coded caching framework so as to exploit the coded multicast gain for minimizing the satellite communication load. We first propose an optimization-based coded multicast scheme by considering the special property that the satellite network topology is predictable and timevariant. Then, a greedy based fast algorithm is proposed, which can tremendously reduce the computation complexity with a small loss in optimality. Simulation experiments conducted on two Walker constellation satellite networks show that our proposed coded multicast method can efficiently reduce the communication load of satellite networks.

Jamming-Aided Secure Communication in Ultra-Dense LEO Integrated Satellite-Terrestrial Networks

The ultra-dense low earth orbit(LEO)integrated satellite-terrestrial networks(UDLEO-ISTN)can bring lots of benefits in terms of wide coverage,high capacity,and strong robustness.Meanwhile,the broadcasting and open natures of satellite links also reveal many challenges for transmission security protection,especially for eavesdropping defence.How to efficiently take advantage of the LEO satellite’s density and ensure the secure communication by leveraging physical layer security with the cooperation of jammers deserves further investigation.To our knowledge,using satellites as jammers in UDLEO-ISTN is still a new problem since existing works mainly focused on this issue only from the aspect of terrestrial networks.To this end,we study in this paper the cooperative secrecy communication problem in UDLEOISTN by utilizing several satellites to send jamming signal to the eavesdroppers.An iterative scheme is proposed as our solution to maximize the system secrecy energy efficiency(SEE)via jointly optimizing transmit power allocation and user association.Extensive experiment results verify that our designed optimization scheme can significantly enhance the system SEE and achieve the optimal power allocation and user association strategies.

NOMA-Based Spectrum Sensing for Satellite-Terrestrial Communication

With the continuous development of wireless communication technology,the number of access devices continues to soar,which poses a grate challenge to the already scarce spectrum resources.Meanwhile,6G will be an era of air-space-terrestrial-sea integration,and satellite spectrum resources are also very tight in the context of giant constellations.In this paper,we propose a Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access(NOMA)based spectrum sensing scheme for the future satellite-terrestrial communication scenarios,and design the transceiver from uplink and downlink scenarios,respectively.In order to better identify the user's transmission status,we obtain the feature values of each user through feature detection to make decision.We combine these two technologies to design the transceiver architecture and deduce the threshold value of feature detection in the satellite-terrestrial communication scenario.Simulations are performed in each scenario,and the results illustrate that the proposed scheme combining NOMA and spectrum sensing can greatly improve the throughput with a similar detection probability as Orthogonal Multiple Access(OMA).

Learning-Based Admission Control for Low-Earth-Orbit Satellite Communication Networks

Satellite communications has been regarded as an indispensable technology for future mobile networks to provide extremely high data rates,ultra-reliability,and ubiquitous coverage.However,the high dynamics caused by the fast movement of low-earth-orbit(LEO)satellites bring huge challenges in designing and optimizing satellite communication systems.Especially,admission control,deciding which users with diversified service requirements are allowed to access the network with limited resources,is of paramount importance to improve network resource utilization and meet the service quality requirements of users.In this paper,we propose a dynamic channel reservation strategy based on the Actor-Critic algorithm(AC-DCRS)to perform intelligent admission control in satellite networks.By carefully designing the longterm reward function and dynamically adjusting the reserved channel threshold,AC-DCRS reaches a long-run optimal access policy for both new calls and handover calls with different service priorities.Numerical results show that our proposed AC-DCRS outperforms traditional channel reservation strategies in terms of overall access failure probability,the average call success rate,and channel utilization under various dynamic traffic conditions.

The Impact of Satellite Communications on Environmental Hazard Control: Tool for the Realization of African Union Agenda 2063 Aspirations

Africa is a developing economy and as such, emphasis has been placed on the achievement of revolutionary goals that will place her on a similar rank as the developed economies. Pertaining to this objective, Heads of States and government all over Africa instigated the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063, which is a framework put in place to achieve a continental transformation over the next 40 years. The use of satellites has been proven to be a major influence on economic growth since it facilitates the exchange of information. Environmental hazards such as climate changes, pollution, and inefficient waste management can be classified as one of the drawbacks to achieving this economic growth we hope to accomplish. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and examine satellite communication as a tool for the attainment of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa by means of combatting environmental hazards in the continent.

Low Altitude Satellite Constellation for Futuristic Aerial-Ground Communications

This paper discusses the significance and prospects of low altitude small satellite aerial vehicles to ensure smooth aerial-ground communications for next-generation broadband networks.To achieve the generic goals of fifthgeneration and beyondwireless networks,the existing aerial network architecture needs to be revisited.The detailed architecture of low altitude aerial networks and the challenges in resource management have been illustrated in this paper.Moreover,we have studied the coordination between promising communication technologies and low altitude aerial networks to provide robust network coverage.We talk about the techniques that can ensure userfriendly control and monitoring of the low altitude aerial networks to bring forth wireless broadband connectivity to a new dimension.In the end,we highlight the future research directions of aerial-ground communications in terms of access technologies,machine learning,compressed sensing,and quantum communications.

Blockchain-Based MCS Detection Framework of Abnormal Spectrum Usage for Satellite Spectrum Sharing Scenario

In this paper, the problem of abnormal spectrum usage between satellite spectrum sharing systems is investigated to support multi-satellite spectrum coexistence. Given the cost of monitoring, the mobility of low-orbit satellites, and the directional nature of their signals, traditional monitoring methods are no longer suitable, especially in the case of multiple power level. Mobile crowdsensing(MCS), as a new technology, can make full use of idle resources to complete a variety of perceptual tasks. However, traditional MCS heavily relies on a centralized server and is vulnerable to single point of failure attacks. Therefore, we replace the original centralized server with a blockchain-based distributed service provider to enable its security. Therefore, in this work, we propose a blockchain-based MCS framework, in which we explain in detail how this framework can achieve abnormal frequency behavior monitoring in an inter-satellite spectrum sharing system. Then, under certain false alarm probability, we propose an abnormal spectrum detection algorithm based on mixed hypothesis test to maximize detection probability in single power level and multiple power level scenarios, respectively. Finally, a Bad out of Good(BooG) detector is proposed to ease the computational pressure on the blockchain nodes. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

For LEO Satellite Networks: Intelligent Interference Sensing and Signal Reconstruction Based on Blind Separation Technology

In LEO satellite communication networks,the number of satellites has increased sharply, the relative velocity of satellites is very fast, then electronic signal aliasing occurs from time to time. Those aliasing signals make the receiving ability of the signal receiver worse, the signal processing ability weaker,and the anti-interference ability of the communication system lower. Aiming at the above problems, to save communication resources and improve communication efficiency, and considering the irregularity of interference signals, the underdetermined blind separation technology can effectively deal with the problem of interference sensing and signal reconstruction in this scenario. In order to improve the stability of source signal separation and the security of information transmission, a greedy optimization algorithm can be executed. At the same time, to improve network information transmission efficiency and prevent algorithms from getting trapped in local optima, delete low-energy points during each iteration process. Ultimately, simulation experiments validate that the algorithm presented in this paper enhances both the transmission efficiency of the network transmission system and the security of the communication system, achieving the process of interference sensing and signal reconstruction in the LEO satellite communication system.

Performance Analysis of the Packet-Based PNT Service in NGSO Broadband Satellite Communication Systems

Providing alternative PNT service to GNSS-challenged users will be an important function of next-generation NGSO broadband satellite communication systems.Herein,a packet-based PNT service architecture in NGSO broadband systems is proposed in which a primary satellite and selected assistant satellites work together to provide PNT service to requesting users.Its positioning performance bounds are mathematically formulated by rigorously analyzing the bounds constrained by different waveforms.Simulations are conducted on different configurations of Walker Delta MEO constellations and Walker Star LEO constellations for corroboration,revealing the following:(1)Both MEO and LEO constellations achieve sub-meter-level positioning precision given enough satellites.(2)Compared to the GNSS Doppler-based velocity estimation method,the position advance based velocity estimation algorithm is more precise and applicable to the PNT service in NGSO broadband systems.(3)To provide PNT service to users in GNSS-challenged environments,the primary and each assistant satellite need only∼0.1‰of the time of one downlink beam.

Communication Resource-Efficient Vehicle Platooning Control With Various Spacing Policies

Platooning represents one of the key features that connected automated vehicles may possess as it allows multiple automated vehicles to be maneuvered cooperatively with small headways on roads. However, a critical challenge in accomplishing automated vehicle platoons is to deal with the effects of intermittent and sporadic vehicle-to-vehicle data transmissions caused by limited wireless communication resources. This paper addresses the co-design problem of dynamic event-triggered communication scheduling and cooperative adaptive cruise control for a convoy of automated vehicles with diverse spacing policies. The central aim is to achieve automated vehicle platooning under various gap references with desired platoon stability and spacing performance requirements, while simultaneously improving communication efficiency. Toward this aim, a dynamic event-triggered scheduling mechanism is developed such that the intervehicle data transmissions are scheduled dynamically and efficiently over time. Then, a tractable co-design criterion on the existence of both the admissible event-driven cooperative adaptive cruise control law and the desired scheduling mechanism is derived. Finally, comparative simulation results are presented to substantiate the effectiveness and merits of the obtained results.

Distributed Nash Equilibrium Seeking Strategies Under Quantized Communication

This paper is concerned with distributed Nash equi librium seeking strategies under quantized communication. In the proposed seeking strategy, a projection operator is synthesized with a gradient search method to achieve the optimization o players' objective functions while restricting their actions within required non-empty, convex and compact domains. In addition, a leader-following consensus protocol, in which quantized informa tion flows are utilized, is employed for information sharing among players. More specifically, logarithmic quantizers and uniform quantizers are investigated under both undirected and connected communication graphs and strongly connected digraphs, respec tively. Through Lyapunov stability analysis, it is shown that play ers' actions can be steered to a neighborhood of the Nash equilib rium with logarithmic and uniform quantizers, and the quanti fied convergence error depends on the parameter of the quan tizer for both undirected and directed cases. A numerical exam ple is given to verify the theoretical results.

Proposal for a realtime Einstein-synchronization-defined satellite virtual clock

Realization of high performance satellite onboard clock is vital for various positioning, navigation, and timing applications. For further improvement of the synchronization-based satellite time and frequency references, we propose a geosynchronous(GEO) satellite virtual clock concept based on ground–satellite synchronization and present a beacon transponder structure for its implementation(scheduled for launch in 2025), which does not require atomic clocks to be mounted on the satellite. Its high performance relies only on minor modifications to the existing transponder structure of GEO satellites. We carefully model the carrier phase link and analyze the factors causing link asymmetry within the special relativity. Considering that performance of such synchronization-based satellite clocks is primarily limited by the link's random phase noise, which cannot be adequately modeled, we design a closed-loop experiment based on commercial GEO satellites for pre-evaluation. This experiment aims at extracting the zero-means random part of the ground-satellite Ku-band carrier phase via a feedback loop. Ultimately, we obtain a 1σ value of 0.633 ps(two-way link), following the Gaussian distribution. From this result, we conclude that the proposed real-time Einstein-synchronization-defined satellite virtual clock can achieve picosecond-level replication of onboard time and frequency.

MTCR-CR Routing Strategy for Connection-Oriented Routing over Satellite Networks

The high-speed movement of satellites makes it not feasible to directly apply the mature routing scheme on the ground to the satellite network.DT-DVTR in the snapshot-based connectionoriented routing strategy is one of the representative solutions,but it still has room for improvement in terms of routing stability.In this paper,we propose an improved scheme for connection-oriented routing strategy named the Minimal Topology Change Routing based on Collaborative Rules(MTCR-CR).The MTCR-CR uses continuous time static topology snapshots based on satellite status to search for intersatellite link(ISL)construction solutions that meet the minimum number of topology changes to avoid route oscillations.The simulation results in Beidou-3 show that compared with DT-DVTR,MTCR-CR reduces the number of routing changes by about 92%,the number of path changes caused by routing changes is about38%,and the rerouting time is reduced by approximately 47%.At the same time,in order to show our algorithm more comprehensively,the same experimental index test was also carried out on the Globalstar satellite constellation.

The First Verification Test of Space-Ground Collaborative Intelligence via Cloud-Native Satellites

Recent advancements in satellite technologies and the declining cost of access to space have led to the emergence of large satellite constellations in Low Earth Orbit(LEO).However,these constellations often rely on bent-pipe architecture,resulting in high communication costs.Existing onboard inference architectures suffer from limitations in terms of low accuracy and inflexibility in the deployment and management of in-orbit applications.To address these challenges,we propose a cloud-native-based satellite design specifically tailored for Earth Observation tasks,enabling diverse computing paradigms.In this work,we present a case study of a satellite-ground collaborative inference system deployed in the Tiansuan constellation,demonstrating a remarkable 50%accuracy improvement and a substantial 90%data reduction.Our work sheds light on in-orbit energy,where in-orbit computing accounts for 17%of the total onboard energy consumption.Our approach represents a significant advancement of cloud-native satellite,aiming to enhance the accuracy of in-orbit computing while simultaneously reducing communication cost.

Building Semantic Communication System via Molecules:An End-to-End Training Approach

The concept of semantic communication provides a novel approach for applications in scenarios with limited communication resources.In this paper,we propose an end-to-end(E2E)semantic molecular communication system,aiming to enhance the efficiency of molecular communication systems by reducing the transmitted information.Specifically,following the joint source channel coding paradigm,the network is designed to encode the task-relevant information into the concentration of the information molecules,which is robust to the degradation of the molecular communication channel.Furthermore,we propose a channel network to enable the E2E learning over the non-differentiable molecular channel.Experimental results demonstrate the superior performance of the semantic molecular communication system over the conventional methods in classification tasks.