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The Interview

Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) handsets that are costly by regular legacy satellite access technologies that
provide wireless communications smartphone standards. The objective are proprietary to different vendors
using satellites in geostationary or now is being able to address mass with a single 3GPP-defined technology.
low earth orbit (LEO), or High Altitude market smartphones.
Platforms (HAPS). This network What’s the goal with NTN?
component has been added to 5G since The second segment is broadcast TV
3GPP Release 17, and is considered services, delivered to hundreds of The idea behind NTN is to achieve
an intrinsic part of the 6G system. millions of homes around the world technological commonalities between
NTN are intended to offer seamless by satellites in geostationary orbit all satellite market segments and
global coverage and support a wide to terminals connected to a familiar mobile systems. This will allow a
range of communication applications rooftop dish or parabolic antenna. reduction in costs through a bigger
demanding high availability. market and consequent economies of
The third segment addresses scale. 5G is already a great basis for
Nicolas Chuberre, Vice Chair of ETSI’s broadband Internet connectivity to this, with its flexible radio interface
Technical Committee on Satellite terminals with a directive antenna, that’s adaptable to any band from 1
Earth Stations and Systems and typically with speeds of a few tens of GHz to tens of GHz. Hence in 3GPP we
Solution Line Manager at Thales megabits per second on the downlink started the standardization process to
Alenia Space, explains how satellite and a few megabits per second on the primarily address the mobile satellite
network technology can complement uplink. While most of these systems market, spanning connectivity to
terrestrial mobile networks for employ geostationary satellites, there handsets as well as to IoT devices.
the benefit of end users as well as have also been initiatives to create And now we’ve just completed
network operators. LEO-based broadband systems such the specifications for broadband
as Starlink that have been enabled by satellite networks operating in the Ka
Let’s start with some definitions. phased array antenna technology at band. The definition of the Ku band
When we talk about ‘satellite the terminal side. has just started.
communications’, what does
this mean from a market What is the commercial And why is satellite a big part
rationale behind closer
perspective? of the conversation about 6G?
integration of satellite networks
Here we are referring to any into the mobile ecosystem? There’s increasing recognition of
communication via satellite, which can the benefits of closer integration
be geostationary or non-geostationary. Users are calling for standardized between satellite and mobile
The latter includes both low and access because they don’t want to be services. Improving the resiliency
medium earth orbiting satellites. tied to a specific service provider. In of the network is at stake. Adding
redundancy communication paths in
addition, they see a benefit in being
“ The objective able to connect anywhere. Given that the network will certainly reinforce
its robustness to node failures.
the service area of a mobile system
may be limited in certain countries,
now is being able
Seamless
service
continuity
satellite allows global coverage
to address mass
instance the maritime industry,
market smartphones. to be achieved, provided that it’s is another challenge. Take for
integrated with mobile systems.
where you have different terminal
Lastly if we want to drive down the devices, all connecting to different
There are three broad market cost to end-users, then clearly we satellite systems. Then when you’re
segments for satellite communications. want to move away from having so approaching the coastline you need
The first addresses direct connectivity many different proprietary satellite to be able to roam to terrestrial
to handheld devices. These typically communication systems that aren’t networks. From a user’s perspective,
operate at frequencies below 3 interoperable, as is currently the case. it’s obviously better if they don’t have
GHz, requiring quite specialized So there’s a rationale in replacing these to keep switching between networks
while using their handset.

Enjoy! The ETSI Mag – August 2024 5