Artificial Intelligence for Satellite Communication and Non-Terrestrial Networks: A Survey

TL;DR

This survey reviews how artificial intelligence is applied to satellite communication and non-terrestrial networks, highlighting use cases, challenges, solutions, hardware, and future research directions to enhance system performance and efficiency.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of AI applications in SatCom and NTN, including use cases, architectures, hardware solutions, and future research pathways.

Findings

AI enhances satellite communication efficiency

On-board and on-ground AI architectures have distinct advantages

Current hardware supports real satellite AI implementations

Abstract

This paper surveys the application and development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Satellite Communication (SatCom) and Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN). We first present a comprehensive list of use cases, the relative challenges and the main AI tools capable of addressing those challenges. For each use case, we present the main motivation, a system description, the available non-AI solutions and the potential benefits and available works using AI. We also discuss the pros and cons of an on-board and on-ground AI-based architecture, and we revise the current commercial and research activities relevant to this topic. Next, we describe the state-of-the-art hardware solutions for developing ML in real satellite systems. Finally, we discuss the long-term developments of AI in the SatCom and NTN sectors and potential research directions. This paper provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the opportunities and challenges offered by AI to improve the performance and efficiency of NTNs.