Integration of Navigation and Remote Sensing in LEO Satellite Constellations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a dual-function LEO satellite constellation framework that integrates navigation and remote sensing, utilizing joint beamforming to optimize performance metrics and demonstrate effectiveness through simulations.

Contribution

It proposes a novel dual-function satellite constellation structure and a joint beamforming method that optimizes navigation and remote sensing performance simultaneously.

Findings

The joint beamforming design reduces PVT errors for navigation.

The approach ensures SAINR requirements for remote sensing.

Simulations confirm the effectiveness of the integrated system.

Abstract

Low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations are becoming a cornerstone of next-generation satellite networks, enabling worldwide high-precision navigation and high-quality remote sensing. This paper proposes a novel dual-function LEO satellite constellation frame structure that effectively integrating navigation and remote sensing. Then, the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB)-based positioning, velocity measurement, and timing (PVT) error and the signal-to-ambiguity-interference-noise ratio (SAINR) are derived as performance metrics for navigation and remote sensing, respectively. Based on it, a joint beamforming design is proposed by minimizing the average weighted PVT error for navigation user equipments (UEs) while ensuring SAINR requirement for remote sensing. Simulation results validate the proposed multi-satellite cooperative beamforming design, demonstrating its effectiveness as an integrated solution for next-generation multi-function LEO satellite constellations.