Tutorial 3

Non-Terrestrial Networks for 6G

Tuesday, 6 June 2023, 9:00-10:30/11:00-12:30, Room G1

Speaker:

• Aryan Kaushik (University of Sussex, UK)
• Muhammad Z. Shakir (University of the West of Scotland, UK)

Motivation and Context

Proposers have also published a recent news article in IEEE ComSoc CTN on Non-Terrestrial Networks [1].
There is an indispensable need of technical advancements and digital transformation for the next generation communication networks not only supporting terrestrial setups but also the emerging satellite and sky-oriented technologies. In the direction of non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) technology, evolving signal processing methods, edge and cloud computing, deep learning techniques, artificial intelligence (AI) assisted deployments for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in NTNs and coverage hole detection, etc., have drastically changed the current realization of the space, sky and terrestrial communication networks. Deployment of 5G Advanced and 6G technologies envisioning NTNs as one of the key fundamental technologies which includes space-net, UAVs, satellite networking, backhaul/fronthaul and access, and their standardization is a mission critical task.
The overview, use cases, deployment scenarios and various architectures on 5G-envisioned NTNs are provided in [2]. In terms of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) work on the evolution of the 5G technologies, there has been a recent focus on NTNs for their latest release, i.e., Rel-17, whereas Rel-16 addressed the enabling 5G New Radio (NR) support for NTN technology including architecture, higher-layer protocols and physical layer (PHY) aspects [3]. The current trends of NTNs in 5G, 5G Advanced and 6G-envisioned communications is highlighted in [4]-[6]. There is remarkable industrial and academic involvement into UAVs, LEO satellites and other flying platforms, implementing technically advanced and robust solutions [7]-[12]. Furthermore, efficient backhauling/fronthauling of either the small cell base station (SBSs) or drone-BS remains a significant challenge. The EuCNC and 6G Summit attendees will benefit from this tutorial which presents comprehensive overview of the emerging NTN based wireless networking including fundamentals, requirements and emerging problem design concepts. The tutorial will cover key enabling technologies for NTNs towards the development of exciting new vertical frameworks.

Structure and Content