LEO Small-Satellite Constellations for 5G and Beyond-5G Communications

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of LEO small-satellite constellations to enhance 5G and Beyond-5G networks, addressing technical challenges and proposing innovative solutions for integration and performance optimization.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of physical and logical links, architectural components, and novel techniques to improve data rates in LEO-based 5G/B5G systems.

Findings

Characterization and comparison of physical link categories

Identification of challenges due to small-satellite impairments

Proposed techniques to maximize data rates

Abstract

The next frontier towards truly ubiquitous connectivity is the use of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) small-satellite constellations to support 5G and Beyond-5G (B5G) networks. Besides enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and massive machine-type communications (mMTC), LEO constellations can support ultra-reliable communications (URC) with relaxed latency requirements of a few tens of milliseconds. Small-satellite impairments and the use of low orbits pose major challenges to the design and performance of these networks, but also open new innovation opportunities. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the physical and logical links, along with the essential architectural and technological components that enable the full integration of LEO constellations into 5G and B5G systems. Furthermore, we characterize and compare each physical link category and explore novel techniques to maximize the achievable data rates.