A Disaster-Aware Integrated TN-NTN System-Level Simulator for Resilient 6G Wireless Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a lightweight, system-level simulator for integrated 6G terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks, focusing on resilience during disasters and partial failures.

Contribution

It presents a novel simulator that models disaster scenarios, supports probabilistic failures, and enables analysis of network resilience and traffic management in 6G systems.

Findings

The simulator demonstrates capacity-delay tradeoffs in terrestrial networks.

It shows reliability and stability of non-terrestrial services during failures.

The framework enables comparative analysis of throughput, PRR, and latency under various conditions.

Abstract

Non-terrestrial networks (NTN) have been standardized by the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) as a key component of future 6G systems to enhance coverage and resilience. In particular, NTN technologies such as low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites, high-altitude platform stations (HAPS), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are expected to support terrestrial networks (TN) during extreme events and disasters. In this paper, we present a lightweight system-level simulator for evaluating post-failure fallback behavior in integrated TN-NTN wireless networks under a partial-failure disaster model. The simulator follows 3GPP Rel-17/18 modeling principles, supports probabilistic terrestrial next-generation node B (gNB) failures, and service migration to NTN. The simulator supports comparative analysis of throughput, packet reception ratio (PRR), and latency under different user loads, disaster severities, and NTN provisioning levels. Results show the expected capacity-delay tradeoff of terrestrial operation, the reliability and stability of non-terrestrial service, and the balanced resilience behavior of hybrid TN-NTN operation. The proposed framework provides a tractable tool for studying wireless network resilience and traffic management in future integrated 6G mobile systems.