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.

Satellite and high altitude platform-based inter-vehicle communications in vast and desolate areas

In order to solve the problem of inter-vehicle communication （IVC） in vast and desolate areas such as the desert and the Gobi, two vehicle network models are proposed. One is based on satellite communication and the other is based on high altitude platform （ HAP ） communication. The system outline and networking modes of the two models are described. In the satellite communication based model, all the vehicles are equipped with vehicle-bone satellite communication on the move terminals and the communication signals between vehicles are forwarded by satellite. In the high altitude platform-based model, the HAPs are equipped with base station facilities to form aerial base stations, and vehicles can communicate with each other via common terrestrial mobile communication devices. Some key parameters such as path loss, link loss and system capacity are also computed. The analysis shows that both the two models can satisfy the requirement of IVC in the descriptive environment.

System Integration of Terrestrial Mobile Communication and Satellite Communication——The Trends, Challenges and Key Technologies in B5G and 6G

Mobile communication standards have been developed into a new era of B5G and 6G.In recent years,low earth orbit(LEO)satellites and space Internet have become hot topics.The integrated satellite and terrestrial systems have been widely discussed by industries and academics,and even are expected to be applied in those huge constellations in construction.This paper points out the trends of two stages towards system integration of the terrestrial mobile communication and the satellite communications:to be compatible with 5G,and to be integrated within 6G.Based on analysis of the challenges of both stages,key technologies are thereafter analyzed in detail,covering both air interface currently discussed in 3GPP for B5G and also novel network architecture and related transmission technologies toward future 6G.

A Positioning System based on Communication Satellites and the Chinese Area Positioning System(CAPS)

The Chinese Area Positioning System （CAPS） is a positioning system based on satellite communication that is fundamentally different from the 3＂G＂ （GPS, GLONASS and GALILEO） systems. The latter use special-purpose navigation satellites to broadcast navigation information generated on-board to users, while the CAPS transfers ground-generated navigation information to users via the communication satellite. In order to achieve accurate Positioning, Velocity and Time （PVT）, the CAPS employs the following strategies to over- come the three main obstacles caused by using the communication satellite： （a） by real-time following-up frequency stabilization to achieve stable frequency; （b） by using a single carrier in the transponder with 36 MHz band-width to gain sufficient power; （c） by incorporating Decommissioned Geostationary Orbit communication satellite （DGEO）, barometric pressure and Inclined Geostationary Orbit communication satellite （IGSO） to achieve the 3-D posi- tioning. Furthermore, the abundant transponders available on DGEO can be used to realize the large capacity of communication as well as the integrated navigation and communication. With the communication functions incorporated, five new functions appear in the CAPS： （1） combination of navigation and communication; （2） combination of navigation and high accu- racy orbit measurement; （3） combination of navigation message and wide/local area differen- tial processing; （4） combination of the switching of satellites, frequencies and codes; and （5） combination of the navigation message and the barometric altimetry. The CAPS is thereby labelled a PVT5C system of high accuracy. In order to validate the working principle and the performance of the CAPS, a trial system was established in the course of two years at a cost of about 20 million dollars. The trial constellation consists of two GEO satellites located at E87.5° and E110.5°, two DGEOs located at E130° and E142°, as well as barometric altimetry as a virtual satellite. Static and dynamic performance tests were completed for the Eastern, the Western, the Northern, the Southern and the Middle regions of China. The evaluation results are as follows： （1） land static test, plane accuracy range： C/A code, 15-25 m; P code, 5-10 meters; altitude accuracy range, 1- m; （2） land dynamic test, plane accuracy range, C/A code, 15-25 m; P code, 8-10m; （3） velocity accuracy, C/A code, 0.13-0.3 m s-1, P code, 0.15-0.17 m s- 1; （4） timing accuracy, C/A code, 160 ns, P code, 13 ns; （5） timing compared accuracy of Two Way Satellite Time and Frequency Transfer （TWSTFT）, average accuracy, 0.068 ns; （6） random error of the satellite ranging, 10.7 mm; （7） orbit determination accuracy, better than 2 m. The above stated random error is 1σ error. At present, this system is used as a preliminary operational system and a complete system with 3 GEO, 3 DGEO and 3 IGSO is being established.

A Joint Encryption and Error Correction Method Used in Satellite Communications

Due to the ubiquitous open air links and complex electromagnetic environment in the satellite communications,how to ensure the security and reliability of the information through the satellite communications is an urgent problem.This paper combines the AES(Advanced Encryption Standard) with LDPC(Low Density Parity Check Code) to design a secure and reliable error correction method — SEEC(Satellite Encryption and Error Correction).This method selects the LDPC codes,which is suitable for satellite communications,and uses the AES round key to control the encoding process,at the same time,proposes a new algorithm of round key generation.Based on a fairly good property in error correction in satellite communications,the method improves the security of the system,achieves a shorter key size,and then makes the key management easier.Eventually,the method shows a great error correction capability and encryption effect by the MATLAB simulation.

Benefits Analysis of Beam Hopping in Satellite Mobile System with Unevenly Distributed Traffic

Satellite mobile system and space-airground integrated network have a prominent superiority in global coverage which plays a critical role in remote and non-land regions, as well as emergency communications. However, due to the gradual angle attenuations of the satellite antennas, it is difficult to achieve full frequency multiplex among different beams as terrestrial 5G network. Multi-color frequency reuse is widely adopted in both academic and industry. Beam hopping scheme has attracted the attention of researchers recently due to the allocation flexibility. In this paper, we focus on analyzing the performance benefits of beam hopping compared with multi-color frequency reuse scheme in non-uniform user and traffic distributions in satellite system. Aerial networks are also introduced to form a space-airground integrated network for coverage enhancement,and the capacity improvement is analyzed. Besides,additional improved techniques are provided to make comprehensive analysis and comparisons. Theoretical analysis and simulation results indicate that the beam hopping scheme has a prominent superiority in the system capacity compared with the traditional multicolor frequency reuse scheme in both satellite mobile system and future space-air-ground integrated network.

LTE-Satellite: Chinese Proposal for Satellite Component of IMT-Advanced System

As a complementary to terrestrial mobile communication systems, mobile satellite communication system can fill the gaps that cannot be covered by terrestrial network, and provides an irreplaceable solution for emergency communication in disaster. To pave the road for future satellite/terrestrial integrated communication networks, ITU-R invited proposals for candidate Radio Interface Technology(RIT) for the satellite component of International Mobile Telecommunications(IMT)-Advanced. China proposed the RIT of Long Term Evolution(LTE)-satellite as a candidate to be considered as IMT-Advanced satellite technology. The submitted LTE-satellite candidate RIT is specified based on terrestrial LTEAdvanced FDD standards that are developed in 3GPP. Considering satellite requirements, a number of modifications to LTE-Advanced are made to adapt to satellite radio transmission environments. This paper provides a general introduction of the new characteristics of LTEsatellite.

From the Far Side of the Moon: Delay/DisruptionTolerant Networking Communications via Lunar Satellites

Delay/Disruption-Tolerant Networking(DTN) originated from research on Interplanetary Internet and still today space applications are the most important application field and research stimulus. This paper investigates DTN communications between the Earth and the far side of the Moon, by means of a lunar orbiter acting as relay. After an introductory part, the paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the DTN performance that can be achieved on the identified communication scenario. The focus is on the evaluation of the stateof-the-art ability of Interplanetary Overlay Network(ION), the NASA DTN implementation of Bundle Protocol(BP) and Contact Graph Routing(CGR), to meet the many challenges of the space communication scenario investigated(and more generally of a future interplaynetary Internet): intermittent links, network partitioning, scarce bandwidth, long delays, dynamic routing, handling of high priority and emergency traffic, interoperability issues. A study of security threats and Bundle Security Protocol(BSP) countermeasures complete the work.The many results provided, confirm the essential role of DTN in future space communications.

Multi-Objective Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Time-Frequency Resource Allocation for Multi-Beam Satellite Communications

Resource allocation is an important problem influencing the service quality of multi-beam satellite communications.In multi-beam satellite communications, the available frequency bandwidth is limited, users requirements vary rapidly, high service quality and joint allocation of multi-dimensional resources such as time and frequency are required. It is a difficult problem needs to be researched urgently for multi-beam satellite communications, how to obtain a higher comprehensive utilization rate of multidimensional resources, maximize the number of users and system throughput, and meet the demand of rapid allocation adapting dynamic changed the number of users under the condition of limited resources, with using an efficient and fast resource allocation algorithm.In order to solve the multi-dimensional resource allocation problem of multi-beam satellite communications, this paper establishes a multi-objective optimization model based on the maximum the number of users and system throughput joint optimization goal, and proposes a multi-objective deep reinforcement learning based time-frequency two-dimensional resource allocation(MODRL-TF) algorithm to adapt dynamic changed the number of users and the timeliness requirements. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm could provide higher comprehensive utilization rate of multi-dimensional resources,and could achieve multi-objective joint optimization,and could obtain better timeliness than traditional heuristic algorithms, such as genetic algorithm(GA)and ant colony optimization algorithm(ACO).

BLIND ADAPTIVE MULTIUSER DETECTOR FOR NONLINEARLY MODULATED SATELLITE MOBILE CDMA SYSTEMS

This paper presents a novel blind adaptive noncoherent decorrelative multiuser detector for nonlinearly modulated satellite mobile Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems. By using the known signature waveforms of the counterpart earth station in the blind adaptive multiuser detector, the system performance has been improved obviously. The computation results about the convergence properties of the new detector and the previous detectors demonstrate that the proposed multiuser detector has better performance than previous multiuser detectors for nonlinearly modulated CDMA systems.

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.

Frequency Offset Compensation for Satellite Communication System with CE-OFDM

Constant envelope orthogonal frequency division multiplexing(CE-OFDM) is a waveform that can achieve 0d B peak-to-average power ratio and avoid the signal distortion caused by the nonlinear power amplifi er. However, the carrier frequency offset(CFO) in CE-OFDM systems can cause errors at phase unwrapper module. In this paper, a CFO estimation scheme is proposed for CEOFDM in satellite communication system. As the null subcarrier is inherent in the conjugate symmetric symbol structure at the transmitter, the proposed scheme uses the null subcarrier as prior information to estimate the CFO at the receiver. The ideal estimation range of normalized CFO is obtained by mathematical analysis. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can estimate the CFO accurately under additive white Gaussian noise(AWGN) channel and multipath fading channel, especially for moderate and high signal-to-noise ratio(SNR).

An Intermediate Frequency Acquisition Scheme for S-band Single Access Link of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System

A nonzero intermediate frequency (IF) likelihood acquisition scheme designed for S-band Single Access (SSA) link of China’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (CTDRSS) is introduced. The received signal is downconverted to IF, and then direct sampled in IF using a 1-bit A/D. After the digitalization, the sampled data is detected using a hybrid likelihood acquisition scheme. Using this structure, large noise figure of the analog mixer or active filters, amplitude and phase imbalance between low-frequency in-phase and quandrature-phase channel can be avoided. An easy designing algorithm of the acquisition scheme is also derived. The performance and algorithm are verified by computer simulation.

EVALUATION OF POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY OF PASSIVE INTERMODULATION DISTORTION IN HIGH-POWER COMMUNICATION SATELLITE SYSTEMS

In order to analyze the deleterious effects of Passive InterModulation (PIM) on high power communication satellite systems, the basic concept of PIM is introduced, and an equation for the power spectral density of the n-th order PIM distortion insuch systems is derived by applying flat signal-power spectrum assumption and Fourier transform method. It is indicated that PIM level generally decreases with order and the lowest frequency receive channel in the receive band is the channel of most affected by PIM interference.

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.

Study of High-Temperature Superconductor Diplexers for Satellite Communications

The high-temperature superconductor （HTSC） resonator and diplexer are simulated by full-wave tools. A newly developed miniature HTSC diplexer is designed and fabricated on double sided YBa2Cu3O7 （YBCO） film （YBCO/LaAlO3/YBCO）, the thickness of which is 400 nm for YBCO and 0.5 mm for the LaAlO3. The measured results show a good agreement with the simulation. The volume and mass of the diplexers are greatly reduced by miniaturized configuration.

Adaptive robust control of mobile satellite communication system with disturbance and model uncertainties

The tracking and stable control of a typical shipmounted mobile satellite communication system（MSCS） is studied.Unlike the former studies based on simplified single-axis models,a tri-axis nonlinear model including the kinematic and dynamic features of the MSCS is used as the control object.An adaptive robust controller with trajectory planning is designed to deal with large parametric uncertainties and uncertain nonlinearities of the system.A theoretic performance result is given and proved.The designed adaptive robust controller and other two traditional controllers are tested in the comparative simulations under three different situations.The simulation results show the tracking and stable validity of the proposed controller.

Robust Authentication and Session Key Agreement Protocol for Satellite Communications

Satellite networks are recognized as the most essential communication infrastructures in the world today,which complement land networks and provide valuable services for their users.Extensive coverage and service stability of these networks have increased their popularity.Since eavesdropping and active intrusion in satellite communications are much easier than in terrestrial networks,securing satellite communications is vital.So far,several protocols have been proposed for authentication and key exchange of satellite communications,but none of them fullymeet the security requirements.In this paper,we examine one of these protocols and identify its security vulnerabilities.Moreover,we propose a robust and secure authentication and session key agreement protocol using the elliptic curve cryptography(ECC).We show that the proposed protocol meets common security requirements and is resistant to known security attacks.Moreover,we prove that the proposed scheme satisfies the security features using the Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications(AVISPA)formal verification tool and On-the fly Model-Checker(OFMC)and ATtack SEarcher(ATSE)model checkers.We have also proved the security of the session key exchange of our protocol using theReal orRandom(RoR)model.Finally,the comparison of our scheme with similar methods shows its superiority.

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.

Integrated Performance Optimization of Satellite Communications Constellation

In order to attain better communications performance rather than just expand coverage and save system cost,criteria related to the communications quality and capacity are extracted and revised to build an integrated performance metric system which aims to effectively guide the satellite communications constellation design.These performance metrics together with the system cost serve as the multiple objectives whilst the coverage requirement is regarded as the basic constraint in the optimization of the constellation configuration design applying a revised NSGA-II algorithm.The Pareto hyper-volumes lead to the best configuration schemes which achieve better integrated system performance compared with the conventional design results based merely on coverage and cost.