Satellite constellation design for 5G wireless networks of mobile communications

Satellite constellation design plays an important role in satellite networks. Network constellation system design can affect the effectiveness of current improvements of the communications link and the management of the entire network. The power requirement of the mobile stations and ground stations is very high in a geostationary Earth orbit communication system, which means the terrestrial terminal is hard to be made handheld for fifth generation mobile communications. The emergence of nongeostationary orbit satellites such as low Earth orbit satellites greatly compensates for the disadvantage of geostationary Earth orbit satellites. Based on the classical constellation design method, the orthogonal circular orbit constellation is proposed. The design objectives considered here are the following: global Earth coverage by low Earth orbit satellites, the duration of continuously covering one mobile station by one satellite is more than 9.57 min, the access satellite link duration time of the mobile station is more than 4.79 min, and the number of satellites and orbits is to be minimum.     

Optimum traffic distribution algorithm for multiple-satellite systems under power constraints

In satellite communications systems, in addition to frequency resources, total satellite transmitting power, (i.e., satellite power) is a crucial radio resource, due to the limited capacity of onboard electric generators. To increase system capacity, satellite power constraints have to be taken into account, as well as the frequency constraints. As one approach to this issue, we propose a traffic distribution algorithm using linear programming, which maximizes the accommodated traffic in a multiple-satellite system under satellite power constraints. The algorithms are applicable to all types of satellite systems with multiple satellites (geosynchronous Earth orbit, medium Earth orbit, low Earth orbit, or a combination of any) to increase system capacity with respect to the total amount of traffic accommodated by the systems. Finally, this paper evaluates the performance of the proposed algorithm by distributing traffic demand on the earth's surface to cells irradiated by spot-beams of a satellite and allocating frequency resources to the cells. By using the algorithm that permits power constraints, the ratio of accommodated traffic in a system was improved 12% compared with the case when no power constraints were used.     

Satellite constellations in the ascendant

Geostationary orbit has been a home to communications satellites for more than 30 years. In this paper, the author investigates how, with the advent of the satellite mobile phone, they are now taking up residence in low Earth orbit     

Frequency synchronization in global satellite communications systems

A frequency synchronization method is proposed and analyzed for global satellite communications systems employing low Earth orbit satellites or medium Earth orbit satellites. In these systems, the Doppler shift varies randomly and can be more than ten times larger than the symbol rate. The proposed method uses the satellite as the reference point and corrects frequency errors accordingly. It is shown the proposed method can achieve negligibly small frequency errors. By employing this method, the system bandwidth can be fully utilized and guard bands are no longer needed.     

Mobility management protocols for next-generation all-IP satellite networks [architectures and protocols for mobility management in all-IP mobile networks]

To provide ubiquitous terrestrial Internet coverage mobility and Internet-based access to data generated by satellites, there is a strong desire to integrate the terrestrial Internet and satellite networks. This requires satellites that are based on IP for communications. Rotation of low Earth orbit satellites around the Earth results in communicating with different ground stations over time, and requires mobility management protocols for seamless communication between the Internet and satellite networks. In this article we provide a comprehensive summary and comparison of state-of-the-art research on mobility management schemes for satellite networks. The schemes are based on network and transport layers for managing host and network mobility. This article clearly indicates the aspects that need further research and which mobility management schemes are the best candidates for satellite networks.     

Satellite systems for personal communications

A number of industrial groups are planning to construct satellite systems to provide personal communications services (typically voice, data, and fax) to users who will employ small, hand-held, cellular-type telephones. Some of these systems (e.g., Iridium and Globalstar) will be constructed using satellites in low Earth orbit. Two (Odyssey and ICO) will employ medium Earth orbit (six-hour period), and still others (ACeS and Agrani) will operate from geostationary altitude. The origin and evolution of mobile satellite communications is discussed first, including the INMARSAT system and several land-based mobile satellite systems in operation. The rival approaches to the personal communications services (PCS) market are then described, and some of the technical challenges inherent in each are indicated. The paper concludes with speculation on the factors influencing the likelihood of business success for the various PCS systems     

Satellite systems for personal communications

A number of industry groups are planning to construct satellite systems that will provide a personal communications service (PCS) (typically voice, data, and fax) to users over small, hand-held, cellular-type telephones. Some of these systems (e.g., Iridium and Globalstar) will be constructed using satellites in low Earth orbit. Two (Ellipso and ICO) will employ medium Earth orbit (3-8-h period), and still others (ACeS and Agrani) will operate from geostationary altitude. The origin and evolution of mobile satellite communications is discussed first, including the Inmarsat system and several land-based mobile satellite systems in operation. The rival approaches to the PCS market are then described, and some of the technical challenges inherent in each are indicated. This paper concludes with speculation on the factors influencing the likelihood of business success for the various PCS systems     

Q-Win – A New Admission and Handoff Management Scheme for Multimedia LEO Satellite Networks

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks are deployed as an enhancement to terrestrial wireless networks in order to provide broadband services to users regardless of their location. In addition to global coverage, these satellite systems support communications with hand-held devices and offer low cost-per-minute access cost, making them promising platform for Personal Communication Services (PCS). LEO satellites are expected to support multimedia traffic and to provide their users with the negotiated Quality of Service (QoS). However, the limited bandwidth of the satellite channel, satellite rotation around the Earth and mobility of end-users makes QoS provisioning and mobility management a challenging task. One important mobility problem is the intra-satellite handoff management. The main contribution of this work is to propose Q-Win, a novel call admission and handoff management scheme for LEO satellite networks. A key ingredient in our scheme is a companion predictive bandwidth allocation strategy that exploits the topology of the network and contributes to maintaining high bandwidth utilization. Our bandwidth allocation scheme is specifically tailored to meet the QoS needs of multimedia connections. The performance of Q-Win is compared to that of two recent schemes proposed in the literature. Simulation results show that our scheme offers low call dropping probability, providing for reliable handoff of on-going calls, good call blocking probability for new call requests, while maintaining bandwidth utilization high.     

Mobile satellite communications systems: Toward global personalcommunications

The constraints imposed by the RF environment are reviewed. An overview of present and planned mobile satellite systems is given. Present systems refer to those already in operation, while planned systems refer to those that have authority to offer the services and have either a satellite in orbit or one being built to support the systems. Future directions for mobile satellite communications systems are discussed. One approach emerging is the use of large satellites, with large antennas. operating at much higher carrier frequencies. A second approach is to use low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites. in order to reduce the path loss. The LEO approach also results in much smaller propagation delays than those experienced with geostationary satellites     

A flexible LEO satellite modem with Ka‐band RF frontend for a data relay satellite system

From a geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellite's perspective, a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite is visible on more than half of its orbit. Albeit the free‐space loss of an inter‐satellite link is much higher than the one of a direct ground link, considerable data rates and download volumes can be achieved. In this paper, we describe the system architecture of an integrated approach for a data relay satellite system and the development of LEO satellite and ground station modems. The approach allows serving several small and inexpensive LEO satellites at the same time both with low rate telemetry/telecommand links and with high rate download of sensor data.     

面向6G低轨卫星物联网的能效优先的多波束鲁棒预编码设计

如今,物联网已经应用在经济社会的各个领域,但是由于空间、环境等限制,地面物联网在一些应用场景中表现出了服务能力严重不足的问题。针对这个问题,第六代移动通信技术（6th generation mobile networks,6G）,提出将卫星通信与地面通信融合,从而实现全球无缝覆盖。对于卫星通信,卫星通常由太阳能供电,导致能量有限,因此想要实现大规模设备高质量的通信,卫星的能量效率设计非常必要。本文为6G低轨（low earth orbit,LEO）卫星物联网（Internet of Things,IoT）设计了一个能量有效的非正交多址接入（non-orthogonal multiple access,NOMA）框架,以支持广域分布设备的大规模机器通信（massive machine-type communications,mMTC）。考虑到LEO卫星的能量有限性和信道状态信息（channel state information,CSI）不准确,本文建立了一个在功率和信干噪比（signal-tointerference-plus-noise ratio,SINR）约束下最大化能效的优化问...     

Satellite constellation design for telecommunication in Antarctica

This paper addresses the problem of designing a small satellite constellation suitable for communications in Antarctica. This study has been motivated by the increasing international interests in having permanent bases in Antarctica to perform experiments in physics, atmospheric sciences, geology, and biology to name a few key areas. The existing and planned scientific expeditions in Antarctica require continuous and reliable communication services, especially during emergencies. Geostationary Earth orbit satellites do not cover this high latitude adequately, and constellations using circular orbits would require too many satellites to provide continuous regional coverage, thus increasing cost prohibitively. A three‐satellite constellation using elliptical orbits is proposed to address this issue. The critical inclination has been selected to predominantly keep the satellites over Antarctica, where the satellites will dwell most of the time. This configuration has been obtained by using the two‐dimensional lattice flower constellation design theory: a minimum parameter design methodology that enforces all three satellites in the same trajectory as seen from the Earth rotating frame. This aspect provides the continuous coverage necessary for reliable communications using only a small number of satellites. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rogue Commercial Geosynchronous Communications Satellites

The growth in numbers of commercial communications satellites in geosynchronous orbit raises the possibilities for radio frequency interference into space-earth transmission systems due to a malfunctioning satellite and of physical damage to an operating satellite due to collision with co-orbiting objects. These possibilities are addressed and recommendations are presented to minimize such occurrences.     

Performance analysis for a guaranteed handover service in an LEOconstellation with a “satellite-fixed cell” system

It is anticipated that the satellite component of the future universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) will be based (partly or totally) on non-geostationary (nonGEO) constellations of satellites to serve mixed populations of users, each category being treated through different contracts stipulating different quality of service (QoS). In particular, we envisage a high-quality premium service which guarantees the success of each handover procedure, called guaranteed handover (GH) service, and a low-cost lower quality service called regular service, where handover failures are accepted provided that the probability of a call being unsuccessful does not exceed a given value. This paper proposes a strategy which eliminates forced call terminations due to handover failures, thus allowing the GH service. This procedure applies to low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations using the satellite-fixed cell technique. An analytical model has been derived to calculate QoS parameters for a mixed population of GH and regular users. Providing both GH service to some users and regular service to other users requires an increased satellite capacity with respect to the case where all the users are served with the regular service; this capacity increase has been evaluated as a function of the percentage of GH users, the traffic load per cell, and the considered satellite mobility environment. The GH approach has been validated through the comparison with another scheme which envisages the queuing of handover requests for privileged users     

Proposal and performance evaluation of an efficient multiple-access protocol for LEO satellite packet networks

This paper deals with a modified version of the packet reservation multiple-access (PRMA) protocol suitable for integration of real-time (voice) and best effort (data) traffic in low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication systems. The proposed scheme differs from previous alternatives on the method adopted to handle access requests for voice and data terminals, and to transmit data messages. An analytical approach is proposed and validated in the case of voice and classical (i.e., geometric distributed) data traffic in order to derive system performance in terms of mean data message delay and voice packet dropping probability. However, in order to better highlight the advantages of the proposed approach typical interactive and background traffics types have been also considered. Performance comparisons with previous proposed PRMA protocols for voice and data transmission in LEO satellite communication systems are also shown in order to highlight the better behavior of the proposed scheme. Finally, a brief discussion concerning the extension of the proposed S-PRMA protocol to the case of different satellite communication systems is also provided.     

Efficient dynamic channel allocation techniques with handoverqueuing for mobile satellite networks

Efficient dynamic channel allocation techniques with handover queuing suitable for applications in mobile satellite cellular networks, are discussed. The channel assignment on demand is performed on the basis of the evaluation of a suitable cost function. Geostationary and low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites have been considered. In order to highlight the better performance of the dynamic techniques proposed, a performance comparison with a classical fixed channel allocation (FCA) has been carried out, as regards the probability that a newly arriving call is not completely served. It has also been shown that a higher traffic density, with respect to GEO systems, is manageable by means of LEO satellites     

一种中高轨混合的多层卫星骨干网络架构设计

卫星骨干网络将向宽带与中继融合方向发展,为陆、海、空、天基用户提供全球骨干传输、宽带接入、全域通联等服务。该文针对全域用户通联的新需求,创新采用“卫星骨干网络/全域用户接入”模型,提出一种具有层内、层间星间链路的中高轨混合的多层卫星骨干网络架构(3GEO+3IGSO/24MEO)。对该架构的全域覆盖性计算分析,得出该多层卫星骨干网络能够实现地球表面到地球同步轨道高度(约36000 km)全域100%覆盖,并为全域用户提供多重接入能力。进一步对路径数、最少跳数、最小时延等关键网络性能指标分析比较,说明了该架构中轨卫星与高轨卫星之间存在层间星间链路的必要性。分析结果表明:该架构能够满足全域宽带接入和全球骨干传输的需求。     

Satellite telenets: A techno-economic assessment of major trends for the future

This paper reviews the historical trends in the development of new communications satellite technology and the technical and economic forces that will drive a new revolution in wide-band communications services in the 1980s and 1990s. The following key technical and service aspects of the new satellite telenets of the 1980s and 1990s will be addressed: new digital services, new antenna designs, intersatellite links, on-board signal processing and regeneration, and new architectural and servicing concepts for long-lived satellites. The possibility of non-Clarke orbit communications satellites in the 21st century will also be reviewed. Competitive technical and economic trends in other forms of telecommunications technologies will also be explored, in order to establish some economic and service "figures of merit" for the future. This analysis reveals some exciting and unexpected aspects about the new satellite telenets of the late-twentieth and early-twenty- first centuries. If messages are beamed to and from communications satellites by laser, there would be room for so many channels that every person on Earth could have his own, just as he has his own telephone number. He could reach everyone on Earth with no trouble, transmitting sight as well as sound... It is not unlikely that a good beginning toward laser satellite communications may be made by the end of the century... If so, it will represent a remarkable advance, considering that at the beginning of the century, mankind was still tied to the wire. (Isaac Asimov, Science Past, Science Present. New York: Ace Books, 1975.) If you're willing to spend enough money on advanced electronics you can virtually guarantee they can be made to not work.--One of Augustine's Laws. ("Augustine's Laws and major systems development programs, pt. 2," Aeronautics and Astronautics, p. 49, Jan. 1981.)     

Can satellites unblock the Internet?

Anyone who has surfed the Internet knows how slow it can be. Some have even suggested that it could become entirely gridlocked early in the next millennium. The author explains how satellites could help avert such a catastrophe. The primary advantage of a satellite system for Internet delivery is the same as it is for other types of communication: coverage area. A single satellite in geostationary orbit can serve approximately one third of the planet's surface, so three can cover most of the world's population. For regions where terrestrial infrastructure is limited or nonexistent, satellite coverage may be the only option. The author discusses the proposed Teledesic broadband low Earth satellite system operating in the Ku band, which is backed by Microsoft, and its only direct competitor SkyBridge which is backed by Alcatel and Loral. The author also discusses the geosynchronous Earth orbit broadband satellite systems. The commercial viability of these systems is discussed     

Space communications

Six proposals for enhancing or expanding the electromagnetic spectrum allocated for communications supporting research in space, which will be heard by the 1992 World Administrative Radio Conference, are discussed. They will cover extravehicular activities, space operations, data relay links, deep space interplanetary probes, future planetary missions, and Earth exploration satellites. Of primary importance to most space agencies is the need to improve the status of the allocation of the space research, space operations, and Earth exploration satellite services in the bands 2.025-2.110 GHz and 2.20-2.29 GHz