2018/06/06 by A. Guidotti, Alessandro Guidotti, Guidotti, A. +36 · 3 citations
Computer Science · Engineering · #Advanced Wireless Communication Technologies #FOS: Computer and information sciences #IoT Networks and Protocols #Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI) #Satellite Communication Systems #cs.NI
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1806.02088
Submitted to Transactions on Vehicular Technologies, April 2018
arxiv created 2018/06/06 · openalex publication_date 2018/06/06 · arxiv updated 2018/06/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Satellite Communication systems are a promising solution to extend and complement terrestrial networks in unserved or under-served areas. This aspect is reflected by recent commercial and standardisation endeavours. In particular, 3GPP recently initiated a Study Item for New Radio-based, i.e., 5G, Non-Terrestrial Networks aimed at deploying satellite systems either as a stand-alone solution or as an integration to terrestrial networks in mobile broadband and machine-type communication scenarios. However, typical satellite channel impairments, as large path losses, delays, and Doppler shifts, pose severe challenges to the realisation of a satellite-based NR network. In this paper, based on the architecture options currently being discussed in the standardisation fora, we discuss and assess the impact of the satellite channel characteristics on the physical and Medium Access Control layers, both in terms of transmitted waveforms and procedures for enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB) and NarrowBand-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) applications. The proposed analysis shows that the main technical challenges are related to the PHY/MAC procedures, in particular Random Access (RA), Timing Advance (TA), and Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) and, depending on the considered service and architecture, different solutions are proposed.