5G GOA

5G-GOA develops and implements the necessary modifications in the 5G New Radio standard to enable the direct radio access of terrestrial communication networks via satellite, a 5G RAN via satellite closely following the 3GPP Work Item on Non-Terrestrial-Networks. The hardware and software development relies on and uses existing technologies, hardware and software components already available from the open source project OpenAirInterface™ for the prototyping of 5G terrestrial systems. Our solution is directly based on 3GPP discussions and results and covers physical layer techniques (e.g. synchronisation) up to specific protocols and upper layer implementations (e.g., timers and random access procedure) of the radio access network, as needed. 5G-GOA focuses on geostationary satellite systems.

5G-GOA produces a hardware and software prototype, consisting of at least two user terminals and a gNodeB base station to verify bi-directional end-to-end communications. 5G-GOA plans to demonstrate the solution live, using the developed terminals and the modified 5G base-station connected via a direct satellite link, in addition to performing realistic tests in lab environment as well by using an advanced propagation channel emulator.

In summary, 5G-GOA develops and delivers a gNodeB (gNB) based gateway and the User Equipment (UE) compliant with the 5G New Radio standard release 17 or later for demonstrating the direct radio access connectivity in Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN).

Importantly, our approach of using the OpenAirInterface™ software framework with custom off the shelf hardware equipment is motivated by that we believe that by extending an open source solution with an existing user community will help maximising reuse of the results and achieving a broad impact.

5G-IS

The study for a space based 5G infrastructure “5G-IS”, which is funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), will propose a comprehensive technical and programmatic vision of how a 5G and beyond 5G space-based infrastructure can provision services for consumer and vertical market segments meeting 5G key performance indicators for performance, reliability, resilience and security. The study undertakes the task to propose how to best deploy a space-based infrastructure and deliver services in an effective and timely manner.

The key objectives of the study are:

  • To consolidate requirements to support vertical market segments and consumers, in agreement with ESA, industry stakeholders and regulators
  • To define services that support vertical market segments over the mid (2025) and long term (beyond 2030)
  • To define overall system architecture and its components
  • To define system convergence and integration with 5G and beyond 5G terrestrial networks, considering standard technologies such as 3GPP and any other relevant standards
  • To elaborate roadmaps in support of the development, validation, implementation of the proposed architecture and its components, including necessary research
  • To establish recommendations for financing mechanisms with valid procurement and deployment models for the realisation of the proposed infrastructure.

Under the leadership of Airbus Defence & Space GmbH, Eurescom GmbH jointly with the partners Fraunhofer (institutes IIS and FOKUS) and Universität der Bundeswehr will design a space based infrastructure for delivering standards based 5G and beyond 5G communication services.

The planned completion of the study is mid 2022.

5G-LEO

5G-LEO aims to accelerate the development of OAI as an open-source tool allowing the exchange and comparison of 5G NTN results by the SatCom community and facilitating the collaboration in R&D activities. The extended OAI software library is seen as an important instrument to develop early prototypes for validating key 5G NTN design aspects and providing prompt feedback to the 3GPP standardization process. The main objectives of the 5G-LEO project are the following:

  • Review the reference scenarios and use cases identified for NR-NTN system deployments by 3GPP and selection of a 5G LEO baseline scenario to be implemented and verified with the extended OAI library.
  • Identification of the fundamental gaps and changes needed in the code base for properly extending OAI for the 5G LEO baseline scenario.
  • Implementation of the required OAI code adaptations for the different layers of the 3GPP protocol stack to support 5G LEO and closely following the developments in 3GPP standardization for 5G-NTN within Rel-17 and potentially in Rel-18.
  • Set-up an end-to-end 5G LEO demonstrator in the lab for experimental validation of the OAI extension for the 5G-LEO baseline scenario.

5G METEORS

5G METEORS implements and operates a framework supporting dynamic prototyping in the 5G satellite convergence domain for direct access of New Radio over satellite, as well as for backhauling, responding in an agile manner to technology developments driven by the market and the standardization work in 3GPP to support the integration of satellites in 5G. Individual activities are to be selected and executed through competitive open calls.

 

DAWN

The DAWN project develops and implements techniques and algorithms that allow automated network control and management based on
• network-generated information – data-driven networking –,
• users’ data – context-awareness –, and
• measured and predicted performance of the network.
In addition to validating the performance of the algorithms through simulation DAWN also validates the proposed data driven techniques in the integrated 5G satellite-terrestrial test bed of SATis5.

EdgeSAT

EdgeSAT – Edge Network Computing Capabilities For Satellite Remote Terminals

EdgeSAT objectives are as follows:

  • Identify and review SatCom connectivity scenarios benefiting from edge networking capabilities;
  • Define Reference Architecture(s), identify critical functionalities, issues and potential solutions, building upon Multi-access Edge Computing, MAMS and/or 3GPP IAB, xRAN/ORAN specifications;
  • Detail the satellite enabled edge node architectures and requirements, including embedded computing/processing capabilities, and dimension and assess such capabilities according to the deployment use cases;
  • Specify Application Programming Interfaces (API) in order to ease services development on top of satellite enabled edge node architectures;
  • Investigate the impact to the overall service value chain and identify the business models needed to monetize the proposed infrastructure developments;
  • Demonstrate how an existing SatCom system could evolve in order to satisfy some of the identified use cases, with special attention to the coexistence and integration with terrestrial access networks and backhaul links, the management of the edge node resources and the scalability performance with large number of edge nodes;
  • Formulate a set of recommendations and strategic actions necessary for the European & Canadian industry to be able to address identified opportunities.
  • Formulate contributions to standardization bodies as and where applicable.

Project web site

EXPANSE

Expanse – Leveraging Big Data Concepts in Future SatCom Networks

Expanse’s objective is to propose 5G native services leveraging on the development and deployment of SDN/VNF integrated SatCom terrestrial platforms, the use of Big Data, Cloud and Multiple access Edge Computing.

As part of this objective Expanse devises a new approach to tackle the overall lifecycle of 5G native services’ design, development and orchestration for different verticals in an integrated SatCom terrestrial 5G ecosystem, adopting the principles of cloud-native services and the separation of concerns among the orchestration of the developed vertical services/applications and the necessary underlying transport network services that support them.

SATis5

SATis5 aims to build a large-scale real-time live end-to-end 5G integrated satellite terrestrial network proof-of-concept testbed. The demonstrator testbed implements, deploys and evaluates an integrated satellite-terrestrial 5G network, showcasing the benefits of the satellite integration with the terrestrial infrastructures as part of a comprehensive communication system.

Relevant satellite use cases for 5G to be demonstrated in SATis5 include enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and massive machine type communications (mMTC). The SATis5 demonstrator covers live, over-the-air GEO and MEO satellite field demonstrations in addition to laboratory emulations and simulations in a federation of testbeds. The demonstrator is an open federation of resources that can integrate or incorporate additional resources and testbeds in the future providing a more diverse set of experiments and demonstrations.