What Makes Satellite Communications an Essential Part of 5G Infrastructure

By Andrew Aroh

• 5G is a technology that will push the boundaries of throughput and capacity further beyond that of 4G to enable newer types of applications and services in the domains of: Health, Transport (Land, Air and Sea), Entertainment, M2M, Security, etc.
• 
• 5G will lead to a huge shift towards a landscape dominated by wireless connectivity.
• 5G is accompanied with deployment of Architectures (Fiber +Terrestrials wireless + Satellite leveraging Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) both at the core and edge of the Network. They will provide: increased computing power, scalability, reduced operating costs and business models to enable differentiation
• 5G will enable instantaneous connectivity to billions of devices, the Internet-of-things (IoTs) and a truly connected world: smart cities, smart homes and smart schools, etc.
• The satellite transport conduit will be integrated into the overall available communication map
• Service providers will need to provide seamless connectivity between terrestrial and satellite
• Traffic will be dynamically steered to the best transport options available (terrestrial/Satellite according to bandwidth, latency, network conditions and other application-specific requirements)
• The interworking between terrestrial and satellite is now well recognized and promoted in the 3GPP standards.
• Management of the NFV infrastructure will be performed through a management and orchestrator (MANO) Framework
• This architecture allows easy integration of multiple applications
• A virtual evolved packet core (vEPC) application would extend local call switching possibility.

A Mobile (Multi access) edge computing (MEC) platform could host different application like caching and multicast which can help reduce latency and improve qualify of experience (QoE) for the user.

• Full integration within the virtualized architecture will apply to satellite as well, beginning with the network core and then expanding to the edge.
• Satellite optimized Quality of service (QoS) and Operational Expense (OPEX) advantage will also remain key as the landscape becomes even more competitive.
• New opportunities for extending satellites services in urban and rural areas will emerge for:
• Covering white zones and ensuring a seamless connectivity plan
• Emergency services
• Broadcast/multicast and network offload schemes
• Aero and Maritime mobility
• Connected cars (software download)
• Mobile backhaul
• Newer low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) constellations will further expand the reach of satellite communications
• Oneweb has launched its first batch of satellites that will provide internet access (using mobile/multiple access) Edge computing (MEC) platform to rural regions around the world.
• Oneweb plan is to build a large network of satellites that will be hung in low earth orbit and beam down broadband internet to underserved areas. The company planned to put up 650 satellites by 2020, with a plan to expand to 900 as it expands its coverage. The network will be built over the course of 21 launches to deploy the satellites
• Space-X is also building a global, broadband LEO constellation of satellites to provide broadband internet access, Interactive multimedia and high-quality voice, operating in the high Frequency ka-band of the radio spectrum.
• Boeing is set to create a new Non-Geosynchronous (NGSO) Satellite constellation for broadband services using V-band for low-latency, very high data rate broadband across the United Stats and the world.

Between rising commercial demand and government-driven universal broadband service obligations, the company expects satellite could play a major role.

• It really comes down to the insatiable demand for bandwidth that we are seeing in the market place. The amount of bits being required by all of us is growing on the order of 20 something percent a year, and in order to meet that demand there are certain areas where satellite has advantages over terrestrial approaches. Customers lack choice in the broadband provider options, especially in rural areas, meaning there is room for more satellite broadband players to compete.
• In the spectrum front, the constellation could downlink information in the 37.5 to 40.0 GHz band on a shared access basis with the proposed Upper Microwave Flexible Use (UMFU) Service.

THE HIGH FREQUENCIES OF THE EM SPECTRUM

Increased spectrum for 5G will provide:

• Continuous connection
• Greater capacity
• More data
• More users
• Faster speeds
• Faster Response Time (Lower-Latency) for connections
• The increased spectrum in the mmW band will provide localized coverage as they only operate overshot distances
• Future 5G deployments may use mmW frequencies in bands up to 86GHz
• On the technology side, Boeing would want to taking its digital pay load technology from it GEO System and putting it into a Small Satellite Form Factor (SSFF). This is because there is a definite advantage in applying them to V-band NGSO System. The digital payload is SCALABLE and can be sized up or down as needed
• The new trend is to shorten development cycles of satellites and make sure the next generation capabilities are brought up quickly and not have these long development cycles that have been in the past. The process involves continuous miniaturization in order to fit more transistors on integrated circuits (ICs), or essentially bringing Moore’s law to bear in space. This could dovetail well with the companies LEO ambitions, as satellites in this orbit typically have shorter life span and therefore require less radiation hardening compared to 15-year geostationary satellites.  

Features of SATCOM SOLUTIONS FOR 5G

• Cost Effective
• Plug and play
• Enabling Mobile Operators and Network Vendors to accelerate 5G deployment across all geographies and multiple use cases
• Creating new and growing market opportunities for SATCOM Industry Stakeholders
• Integrating Satellite Links with heavy emphasis on standardization to allow trusted operation and to Facilitate industry adoption
• Focus in on eMBB(enhanced Mobile Broadband) to fixed and Mobile Networks, including support for orchestration and slicing, with the satellite links providing backhaul connectivity either alone or in parallel (Multilink) connectivity with terrestrial links.
• Platform which enables high efficiency, high performance, Virtualization and Multiservice capability parameter for 5G.
• Consider the Successful Demonstration of 5G Connectivity over a LEO Satellite, Powered by Gilat using Telesats phase 1 LEO
• At EuCNC 2019, Sat5G conducted six demonstrations showcasing 5G use case over satellite: Video Streaming, Content Caching, Airline Connectivity, 5G NR over satellite, Backhaul applications-1, Backhaul applications-2
• In General, Testing campaign confirms LEO provides superior fiber-like performance for high end satellite services.
• The ability to demonstrate Fiber-Like performance via satellite across a number of applications that perform poorly on GEO satellite backhaul is a testament to the capabilities of LEO network for 5G.
• With its high-throughput links, ultra-low latency, and disruptive economics, LEO constellations offers an unparalleled value proposition to expand the reach of 4G and 5G networks.

Test Scenarios Included:

• High definition Video steaming without interruption
• Video conference with teams demonstrating consistent and voice transmission with user experience matching terrestrial and cellular connections
• Remote desktop connection to seamlessly manage a remote computer
• VPN connection without any delay or outages
• FTP encrypted file transfers of 2GB in both directions
• IPsec tuned encryption with no reduction in the performance of the link.

As satellite professionals plan, design and build offerings to provide best-in-class connectivity for 5G customers, we are eager to explore how cutting edge technologies like new LEO constellations can integrate with global connectivity infrastructure across every application to deliver an outstanding performance, with significant improvement over what we can achieve via GEO satellites today.

Therefore, to get super-high, multi-gigabit speeds, carriers are first turning to newer, much higher frequencies, known as millimeter-wave (mmW).

Andrew Aroh is President SSPI Nigeria