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

Israel Leyva-Mayorga; Beatriz Soret; Maik Roper; Dirk Wubben; Bho Matthiesen; Armin Dekorsy; Petar Popovski

doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3029620

IEEE Access (Jan 2020)

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

Israel Leyva-Mayorga,
Beatriz Soret,
Maik Roper,
Dirk Wubben,
Bho Matthiesen,
Armin Dekorsy,
Petar Popovski

Affiliations

Israel Leyva-Mayorga: ORCiD; Department of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
Beatriz Soret: ORCiD; Department of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
Maik Roper: ORCiD; Department of Communications Engineering, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Dirk Wubben: ORCiD; Department of Communications Engineering, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Bho Matthiesen: ORCiD; Department of Communications Engineering, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Armin Dekorsy: ORCiD; Department of Communications Engineering, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Petar Popovski: ORCiD; Department of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3029620
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 8
pp. 184955 – 184964

Abstract

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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.

Published in IEEE Access

ISSN: 2169-3536 (Online)
Publisher: IEEE
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Technology: Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering
Website: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6287639

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