No Arabic abstract
In ultra-dense LEO satellite networks, conventional communication-oriented beam pattern design cannot provide multiple favorable signals from different satellites simultaneously, and thus leads to poor positioning performance. To tackle this issue, in this paper, we propose a novel cooperative beam hopping (BH) framework to adaptively tune beam layouts suitable for multi-satellite coordinated positioning. On this basis, a joint user association, BH design and power allocation optimization problem is formulated to minimize average Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB). An efficient flexible BH control algorithm (FBHCA) is then proposed to solve the problem. Finally, a thorough experimental platform is built following the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) defined non-terrestrial network (NTN) simulation parameters to validate the performance gain of the devised algorithm. The numerical results demonstrate that FBHCA can significantly improve CRLB performance over the benchmark scheme.
Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations rely on inter-satellite links (ISLs) to provide global connectivity. However, one significant challenge is to establish and maintain inter-plane ISLs, which support communication between different orbital planes. This is due to the fast movement of the infrastructure and to the limited computation and communication capabilities on the satellites. In this paper, we make use of antenna arrays with either Butler matrix beam switching networks or digital beam steering to establish the inter-plane ISLs in a LEO satellite constellation. Furthermore, we present a greedy matching algorithm to establish inter-plane ISLs with the objective of maximizing the sum of rates. This is achieved by sequentially selecting the pairs, switching or pointing the beams and, finally, setting the data rates. Our results show that, by selecting an update period of 30 seconds for the matching, reliable communication can be achieved throughout the constellation, where the impact of interference in the rates is less than 0.7 % when compared to orthogonal links, even for relatively small antenna arrays. Furthermore, doubling the number of antenna elements increases the rates by around one order of magnitude.
Virtual Node (VN) method is widely adopted to handle satellite network topological dynamics. However, conventional VN method is insufficient when earth rotation and inter-plane phase difference are considered. An improved VN method based on Celestial Sphere Division is proposed to overcome the defects of the conventional method. An optimized inter-satellite link connecting mode is derived to achieve maximal available links. The optimal VN division solution and addressing scheme are designed to generate a nearly static virtual network and solve the asynchronous switches caused by inter-plane phase difference. Comparison results demonstrate the advantages of proposed method.
In an Ultra-dense network (UDN) where there are more base stations (BSs) than active users, it is possible that many BSs are instantaneously left idle. Thus, how to utilize these dormant BSs by means of cooperative transmission is an interesting question. In this paper, we investigate the performance of a UDN with two types of cooperation schemes: non-coherent joint transmission (JT) without channel state information (CSI) and coherent JT with full CSI knowledge. We consider a bounded dual-slope path loss model to describe UDN environments where a user has several BSs in the near-field and the rest in the far-field. Numerical results show that non-coherent JT cannot improve the user spectral efficiency (SE) due to the simultaneous increment in signal and interference powers. For coherent JT, the achievable SE gain depends on the range of near-field, the relative densities of BSs and users, and the CSI accuracy. Finally, we assess the energy efficiency (EE) of cooperation in UDN. Despite costing extra energy consumption, cooperation can still improve EE under certain conditions.
In this paper, we review well-known handovers algorithms in satellite environment. The modern research trends and contributions are proposed and summarized in order to overcome their considering problems in satellite-air-ground integrated network environment caused by the fast movement of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite and related frequent handover occurrences.
Dense constellations of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) small satellites are envisioned to make extensive use of the inter-satellite link (ISL). Within the same orbital plane, the inter-satellite distances are preserved and the links are rather stable. In contrast, the relative motion between planes makes the inter-plane ISL challenging. In a dense set-up, each spacecraft has several satellites in its coverage volume, but the time duration of each of these links is small and the maximum number of active connections is limited by the hardware. We analyze the matching problem of connecting satellites using the inter-plane ISL for unicast transmissions. We present and evaluate the performance of two solutions to the matching problem with any number of orbital planes and up to two transceivers: a heuristic solution with the aim of minimizing the total cost; and a Markovian solution to maintain the on-going connections as long as possible. The Markovian algorithm reduces the time needed to solve the matching up to 1000x and 10x with respect to the optimal solution and to the heuristic solution, respectively, without compromising the total cost. Our model includes power adaptation and optimizes the network energy consumption as the exemplary cost in the evaluations, but any other QoS-oriented KPI can be used instead.