Challenges,Opportunities,and Future Research in the Integration of 5G/6G Networks,LEO Satellites,and IoT for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development at ECSTAR

The rapid proliferation of connected IoT(Internet of Things)devices,along with the increasing demand for 5G mobile networks and ubiquitous high-speed connectivity,poses significant challenges in the telecommunications sector.To address these challenges,a comprehensive understanding of the integration of 5G/6G networks and LEO(Low Earth Orbit)satellite networks is required,forming the concept of“integrated networks”.Integration offers valuable advantages,including service continuity,wide-area coverage,and support for critical communications and emerging applications.This paper provides a high-level overview of the convergence of 5G/6G,LEO satellites,and IoT devices,shedding light on the technological challenges and standardization issues associated with the transition from 5G to 6G networks using NTNs(Non-Terrestrial Networks)based on LEO satellites.Furthermore,this research delves into the emerging social issues,potential possibilities,and the paradigm shift from the IoT to the IoI(Internet of Intelligence),which is poised to revolutionize the landscape of 6G wireless networks.By highlighting the interconnectedness of 5G/6G networks,LEO satellite systems,and IoT devices,it underscores the importance of leveraging these converging technologies to address environmental protection and achieve the United Nations SDGs(Sustainable Development Goals).In addition to providing valuable insights for readers seeking to comprehend the convergence of 5G/6G networks,LEO satellite systems,and IoT devices,this paper represents the outcomes of a comprehensive analysis conducted at the ECSTAR(Excellence Center of Space Technology and Research).Through an examination of technological challenges and advancements,it identifies future research directions and potential avenues for exploration at ECSTAR,thereby contributing to a broader understanding of integrated networks and their profound impact on future telecommunications systems.This research serves as a significant resource for advancing the knowledge and discourse surrounding the linkages between the convergence of these technologies,environmental protection,and the pursuit of the SDGs.

Orbital Elements Ephemerides and Interfaces Design of LEO Satellites

Low earth orbit satellites,with unique advantages,are prosperous types of navigation augmentation satellites for the GNSS satellites constellations.The broadcast ephemeris element needs to be designed as an important index of the augmented LEOs.The GPS ephemerides of 16/18 elements cannot be directly applied to the LEOs because of the poor fitting accuracies in along-track positional component.Besides,the ill-conditioned problem of the normal-matrix exists in fitting algorithm due to the small eccentricity of the LEO orbits.Based on the nonsingular orbital elements,5 sets of ephemerides with element numbers from 16 to 19 were designed respectively by adding or modifying orbital elements magnifying the along-track and radial positional components.The fitting experiments based on the LEO of 300 to 1500 km altitudes show that the fitting UREs of the proposed 16/17/18/18*/19-element ephemerides are better than 10/6/4/5/2.5 cm,respectively.According to the dynamical range of the fitting elements,the interfaces were designed for the 5 sets of ephemerides.The effects of data truncation on fitting UREs are at millimeter level.The total bits are 329/343/376/379/396,respectively.29/15 bits are saved for the 16/17-element ephemerides compared with the GPS16 ephemeris,while 64/61/41 bits can be saved for the 18/18*/19-element ephemerides compared with the GPS18 elements ephemeris.

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.

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.

Covert LEO Satellite Communication Aided by Generative Adversarial Network Based Cooperative UAV Jamming

In this paper,we study the covert performance of the downlink low earth orbit(LEO)satellite communication,where the unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)is employed as a cooperative jammer.To maximize the covert rate of the LEO satellite transmission,a multi-objective problem is formulated to jointly optimize the UAV’s jamming power and trajectory.For practical consideration,we assume that the UAV can only have partial environmental information,and can’t know the detection threshold and exact location of the eavesdropper on the ground.To solve the multiobjective problem,we propose the data-driven generative adversarial network(DD-GAN)based method to optimize the power and trajectory of the UAV,in which the sample data is collected by using genetic algorithm(GA).Simulation results show that the jamming solution of UAV generated by DD-GAN can achieve an effective trade-off between covert rate and probability of detection errors when only limited prior information is obtained.

Multi-network-region traffic cooperative scheduling in large-scale LEO satellite networks

A low-Earth-orbit(LEO)satellite network can provide full-coverage access services worldwide and is an essential candidate for future 6G networking.However,the large variability of the geographic distribution of the Earth’s population leads to an uneven service volume distribution of access service.Moreover,the limitations on the resources of satellites are far from being able to serve the traffic in hotspot areas.To enhance the forwarding capability of satellite networks,we first assess how hotspot areas under different load cases and spatial scales significantly affect the network throughput of an LEO satellite network overall.Then,we propose a multi-region cooperative traffic scheduling algorithm.The algorithm migrates low-grade traffic from hotspot areas to coldspot areas for forwarding,significantly increasing the overall throughput of the satellite network while sacrificing some latency of end-to-end forwarding.This algorithm can utilize all the global satellite resources and improve the utilization of network resources.We model the cooperative multi-region scheduling of large-scale LEO satellites.Based on the model,we build a system testbed using OMNET++to compare the proposed method with existing techniques.The simulations show that our proposed method can reduce the packet loss probability by 30%and improve the resource utilization ratio by 3.69%.

Delay-optimal multi-satellite collaborative computation offloading supported by OISL in LEO satellite network

By deploying the ubiquitous and reliable coverage of low Earth orbit(LEO)satellite networks using optical inter satel-lite link(OISL),computation offloading services can be provided for any users without proximal servers,while the resource limita-tion of both computation and storage on satellites is the impor-tant factor affecting the maximum task completion time.In this paper,we study a delay-optimal multi-satellite collaborative computation offloading scheme that allows satellites to actively migrate tasks among themselves by employing the high-speed OISLs,such that tasks with long queuing delay will be served as quickly as possible by utilizing idle computation resources in the neighborhood.To satisfy the delay requirement of delay-sensi-tive task,we first propose a deadline-aware task scheduling scheme in which a priority model is constructed to sort the order of tasks being served based on its deadline,and then a delay-optimal collaborative offloading scheme is derived such that the tasks which cannot be completed locally can be migrated to other idle satellites.Simulation results demonstrate the effective-ness of our multi-satellite collaborative computation offloading strategy in reducing task complement time and improving resource utilization of the LEO satellite network.

Survivability model of LEO satellite constellation based on GERT with limited backup resources

Survivability is used to evaluate the ability of the satellite to complete the mission after failure,while the duration of maintaining performance is often ignored.An effective backup strategy can restore the constellation performance timely,and maintain good network communication performance in case of satellite failure.From the perspective of network utility,the low Earth orbit(LEO)satellite constellation survivable graphical eva-luation and review technology(GERT)network with backup satel-lites is constructed.A network utility transfer function algorithm based on moment generating function and Mason formula is proposed,the network survivability evaluation models of on-orbit backup strategy and ground backup strategy are established.The survivable GERT model can deduce the expected mainte-nance time of LEO satellite constellation under different fault states and the network utility generated during the state mainte-nance period.The case analysis shows that the proposed surviv-able GERT model can consider the satellite failure rate,backup satellite replacement rate,maneuver control replacement ability and life requirement,and effectively determine the optimal sur-vivable backup strategy for LEO satellite constellation with limi-ted resources according to the expected network utility.

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 Collaborative Beam Hopping Frequency Allocation Mechanism for Future LEO Satellite Systems

Low Earth orbit(LEO) satellite systems provide terrestrial users with services that are not limited by geographical location. However, the conflict between existing allocation schemes and the business variability between beams is becoming increasingly prominent. Beam hopping technology allows for a more flexible and versatile approach to satellite resource allocation. This paper proposes a beam hopping pattern optimization scheme that jointly considers the interference threshold distance and beam service priority, reducing the inter-beam co-channel interference(CCI). In the cluster area, a non-orthogonal multiple access(NOMA)-based collaborative beam hopping(NCBH) scheme is proposed to minimize the cell-edge user(CEU) interference. Since there is a difference in channel gain between the CEU and cellcenter user(CCU), this scheme forms a NOMA cluster to perform power domain multiplexing and formulates a NOMA cluster pairing strategy according to the user location to reduce the CCI of the CEU. After NOMA cluster pairing, the optimal carrier frequency of the NOMA cluster is selected by a reinforcement learning algorithm. The simulation results verify the excellent performance of the proposed NCBH scheme regarding the user’s received power, transmission rate, and outage probability.

High-Risk LEO Satellite Network Path Detection Based on Spatial and Temporal Delay Anomaly Analysis

The gradual deployment of Low-Earth Orbit(LEO)mega constellations with inter-satellite links(ISLs)promises ubiquitous,low-latency,and high-throughput satellite network services.However,networked LEO satellites with ISLs are also at risk of routing attacks such as hijacking.Existing defenses against route hijacking in terrestrial networks can hardly work for the LEO satellite network due to its high spatiotemporal dynamics.To deal with it,we propose RPD,a high-risk routing path detection method for LEO mega-constellation networks.RPD detects abnormal high-risk LEO network paths by checking the consistency between the path delay and the geographical distance.This is efficiently achieved by combining in-band measurements and out-of-band statistical processing to detect the anomaly of the clustering feature in the reference delay matrix.RPD avoids the recalculation of the header cryptographic marks when the handover occurs,thus greatly reducing the cost and improving the performance of highrisk path detection.Experiments showed that the proposed RPD mechanism achieves an average detection accuracy of 91.64%under normal network conditions,and maintain about 89%even when congestion occurs in multiple areas of the network and measurement noise is considered.In addition,RPD does not require any cryptographic operation on the intermediate node,only minimal communication cost with excellent scalability and deployability.

Resource allocation for uplink grant-free access in beam-hopping based LEO satellite systems

The low earth orbit(LEO) satellite system provides a promising solution for the global coverage of Internet of Things(IoT) services.Confronted with the sporadic uplink transmission from massive IoT terminals, this work investigates the grant-free access scheme and resource allocation algorithm for the beam-hopping(BH) based LEO satellite systems.To improve the packet success rate, the time slots are pre-allocated to each cell according to the number of terrestrial terminals and the probability of packet arrival.When the packets arrive, the terrestrial terminals perform contention-free or contention-based grant-free access with packet repetition in the time slots allocated to their cells.The analytical expression of the packet collision probability for the grant-free access scheme is derived to provide reference for the resource allocation.To reduce the computational complexity, a heuristic resource allocation algorithm is proposed to minimize the maximum cell packet collision probability in the system.Simulation results show that the proposed resource allocation scheme achieves lower packet collision probability and higher resource utilization ratio when compared with the uniform resource allocation scheme.

Key issues of multiple access technique for LEO satellite communication systems

The large carrier frequency shift caused by the high-speed movement of satellite (Doppler effects) and the propagation delay on the up-down link are very critical issues in an LEO satellite communication system, which affects both the selection and the implementation of a suitable access method. A Doppler based multiple access technique is used here to control the flow and an MPRMA-HS protocol is proposed for the application in LEO satellite communication systems. The extended simulation trials prove that the proposed scheme seems to be a very promising access method.

Load Balancing Routing Algorithm Based on Extended Link States in LEO Constellation Network

As an important part of satellite communication network,LEO satellite constellation network is one of the hot research directions.Since the nonuniform distribution of terrestrial services may cause inter-satellite link congestion,improving network load balancing performance has become one of the key issues that need to be solved for routing algorithms in LEO network.Therefore,by expanding the range of available paths and combining the congestion avoidance mechanism,a load balancing routing algorithm based on extended link states in LEO constellation network is proposed.Simulation results show that the algorithm achieves a balanced distribution of traffic load,reduces link congestion and packet loss rate,and improves throughput of LEO satellite network.

Aviation-oriented Mobility Management Method in IP/LEO Satellite Networks

Taking into chief consideration the features of aviation nodes in satellite networks, such as high moving speed, long communication distance, and high connection frequency, this article proposes an aviation-oriented mobility management method for IP/low earth orbit （LEO） satellite networks. By introducing the concept of ground station real-time coverage area, the proposed method uses ground-station-based IP addressing method and cell paging scheme to decrease the frequency of IP binding update requests as well as the paging cost. In comparison with the paging mobile IP （P-MIP） method and the handover-independent IP mobility management method, as is verified by the mathematical analysis and simulation, the proposed method could decrease the management cost. It also possesses better ability to support the aviation nodes because it is subjected to fewer influences from increased node speeds and newly coming connection rates.

Analysis of detection capabilities of LEO reconnaissance satellite constellation based on coverage performance

In the design problem of low earth orbit(LEO) reconnaissance satellite constellation, optimization of coverage performance is the design goal in most current methods. However,in the using process, the user only concerns with the detection capabilities rather than coverage performance. To establish the relationship between these two aspects, the reconnaissance processes of normal stochastic targets are considered and the mathematic models of detection processes are built. The indicators of coverage performance are used to evaluate the detection probability and expectation of detection time delay, which are important factors in reconnaissance constellation estimation viewed from military intelligence discipline. The conclusions confirmed by the final simulation will be useful in LEO reconnaissance constellation design, optimization and evaluation.

A DISTRIBUTED QOS ROUTING BASED ON ANT ALGORITHM FOR LEO SATELLITE NETWORK

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites provide short round-trip delays and are becoming in- creasingly important. One of the challenges in LEO satellite networks is the development of specialized and efficient routing algorithms. To satisfy the QoS requirements of multimedia applications, satellite routing protocols should consider handovers and minimize their effect on the active connections. A distributed QoS routing scheme based on heuristic ant algorithm is proposed for satisfying delay bound and avoiding link congestion. Simulation results show that the call blocking probabilities of this al- gorithm are less than that of Shortest Path First (SPF) with different delay bound.

Reliability Evaluation of All-User Terminals in LEO Satellite Communication Network Based on Modular Reduction

LEO satellite communication network has a large number of satellites distributed in low orbits,which leads to multiple coverage of many areas on the ground.It is hard work to describe and evaluate the reliability of LEO satellite communication network.To solve this problem,the reliability of all-user terminals in LEO satellite communication network is defined,and the corresponding reliability evaluation method is proposed in the paper.Due to the large scale of the interstellar network,a modular reduction algorithm using the modular network instead of the original network for state decomposition is proposed in this paper.Case study shows that the calculation time of the proposed method is equivalent to 6.28%of the original state space decomposition algorithm.On this basis,the reliability of LEO satellite communication network is further analyzed.It is found that the reliability of LEO satellite network was more sensitive to the reliability of Inter-Satellite link and the satisfaction of global coverage in the early stage,and it is more sensitive to the reliability of the satellite in the later stage.The satellite-ground link has a relatively constant impact on of LEO satellite network.

A Fast and Accurate LEO Satellite-Based Direct Position Determination Assisted by TDOA Measurements

This paper focuses on the trusted vessel position acquisition using passive localization based on the booming low-earth-orbit(LEO) satellites. As the high signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) reception cannot always be guaranteed at LEO satellites, the recently developed direct position determination(DPD)is adopted. For LEO satellite-based passive localization systems, an efficient DPD is challenging due to the excessive exhaustive search range leading from broad satellite coverage. In order to reduce the computational complexity, we propose a time difference of arrival-assisted DPD(TA-DPD) which minimizes the searching area by the time difference of arrival measurements and their variances. In this way, the size of the searching area is determined by both geometrical constraints and qualities of received signals, and signals with higher SNRs can be positioned more efficiently as their searching areas are generally smaller.Both two-dimensional and three-dimensional passive localization simulations using the proposed TA-DPD are provided to demonstrate its efficiency and validity. The superior accuracy performance of the proposed method, especially at low SNRs conditions, is also verified through the comparison to conventional two-step methods. Providing a larger margin in link budget for satellite-based vessel location acquisition,the TA-DPD can be a competitive candidate for trusted marine location service.

LoS MIMO Transmission for LEO Satellite Communication Systems

To provide global service with low latency, the broadband low earth orbits (LEO) satellite constellation based communication systems have become one of the focuses in academic and industry. To allow for wideband access for user links, the feeder link of LEO satellite is correspondingly required to support high throughput data communications. To this end, we propose to apply line-of-sight (LoS) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission for the feeder link to achieve spatial multiplexing by optimizing the antenna arrangement. Unlike the LoS MIMO applications for static scenarios, the movement of LEO satellites make it impractical to adjust the optimal antenna separation for all possible satellite positions. To address this issue, we propose to design the antenna placement to maximize the ergodic channel capacity during the visible region of the ground station. We first derive the closed-form probability distribution of the satellite trajectory in visible region. Based on which the ergodic channel capacity can be then calculated numerically. The antenna placement can be further optimized to maximize the ergodic channel capacity. Numerical results verify the derived probability distribution of the satellite trajectory, and show that the proposed LoS MIMO scheme can significantly increase the ergodic channel capacity compared with the existing SISO one.