A Survey on Non-Geostationary Satellite Systems:

The Communication Perspective

Hayder Al-Hraishawi, Member, IEEE, Houcine Chougrani, Member, IEEE, Steven Kisseleff, Member, IEEE,
Eva Lagunas, Senior Member, IEEE, and Symeon Chatzinotas, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—The next phase of satellite technology is being and for fifth-generation (5G) system integration [2]. Recently,
characterized by a new evolution in non-geostationary orbit due to the swift rise of NewSpace industries [3] that are
(NGSO) satellites, which conveys exciting new communication developing small satellites with new low-cost launchers [4],
capabilities to provide non-terrestrial connectivity solutions and
to support a wide range of digital technologies from various a large number of satellite operators have already planned to
industries. NGSO communication systems are known for a launch thousands of non-geostationary (NGSO) satellites to
number of key features such as lower propagation delay, smaller satisfy the burgeoning demand for global broadband, high-
size, and lower signal losses in comparison to the conventional speed, ultra-reliable and low latency communications.
geostationary orbit (GSO) satellites, which can potentially enable
arXiv:2107.05312v3 [eess.SP] 18 May 2022

latency-critical applications to be provided through satellites.

Furthermore, satellite systems have been contributing to
NGSO promises a substantial boost in communication speed and deliver telecommunication services in a wide range of sectors
energy efficiency, and thus, tackling the main inhibiting factors such as aeronautical, maritime, military, rescue and disaster
of commercializing GSO satellites for broader utilization. The relief. Beyond this, NGSO systems are envisaged to be an
promised improvements of NGSO systems have motivated this efficient solution for future non-terrestrial networks (NTN)
paper to provide a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-
art NGSO research focusing on the communication prospects,
to meet the demanding sixth-generation (6G) system require-
including physical layer and radio access technologies along ments in terms of both large throughput and global connec-
with the networking aspects and the overall system features tivity [5]. In this direction, the third generation partnership
and architectures. Beyond this, there are still many NGSO project (3GPP) standards group has been codifying the use of
deployment challenges to be addressed to ensure seamless in- satellite systems to integrate space-airborne-terrestrial commu-
tegration not only with GSO systems but also with terrestrial
networks. These unprecedented challenges are also discussed in
nication networks in order to support future wireless ecosys-
this paper, including coexistence with GSO systems in terms of tems [6], [7]. Moreover, by harnessing satellites geographical
spectrum access and regulatory issues, satellite constellation and independence, wireless connectivity can be extended to the
architecture designs, resource management problems, and user underserved and unserved areas, where NGSO systems can
equipment requirements. Finally, we outline a set of innovative facilitate the deployment of 5G and beyond networks. Thus,
research directions and new opportunities for future NGSO
research.
NGSO satellites are expected to play a crucial role in bridging
Index Terms—Non-Geostationary (NGSO) satellite constella- the digital divide by extending backhaul for 5G services and
tions, non-terrestrial network (NTN), satellite communications, providing high-bandwidth links directly to the end users [8].
space information networks, space-based Internet providers,
spacecraft.
A. Background
I. I NTRODUCTION Geostationary orbit (GSO) satellites are orbiting at the equa-
Satellites have a distinctive ability of covering wide geo- torial plane at an altitude of 35,678 km with an almost zero-
graphical areas through a minimum amount of infrastructure inclination angle. Notwithstanding GSO large coverage, these
on the ground, which qualifies them as an appealing solution satellites cannot cover the high-latitude areas. Additionally,
to fulfill the growing number of diverse applications and the communication links between GSO satellites and ground
services either as a stand-alone system, or as an integrated stations are vulnerable to high propagation losses, and hence,
satellite-terrestrial network [1]. Currently, the field of satellite large antennas with higher transmit power are necessary [9].
communications is drawing an increased attention in the global Moreover, the propagation delay of GSO satellites is high due
telecommunications market as several network operators start to the long propagation path, which makes them unfavourable
using satellites in backhauling infrastructures for connectivity for delay-sensitive services. Whereas, NGSO satellites on a
geocentric orbit include the low Earth orbit (LEO), medium
The authors are with the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability Earth orbit (MEO), and highly elliptical orbit (HEO) satellites,
and Trust (SnT), University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg. Corresponding which are orbiting constantly at lower altitudes than GSO
author: Hayder Al-Hraishawi ([email protected]).
This research was funded in whole by the Luxembourg National Re- satellites, and thus, their link losses and latency due to signal
search Fund (FNR) in the frameworks of the FNR-CORE project ”Mega- propagation are lower [10]. Since these lower orbit satellites
LEO: Self-Organised Lower Earth Orbit Mega-Constellations” (Grant no. serve smaller coverage areas than GSO ones, a constellation
C20/IS/14767486). For the purpose of open access, the authors have applied
a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license to any of NGSO satellites is needed to achieve full Earth coverage
Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission. including the high-latitude regions [11].

1
 In addition to the NGSO unique capabilities in providing
1400
GSO
global coverage, low-latency communication, and high-speed
NGSO Internet access points, these systems can ameliorate the way
1200
satellite missions are designed and operated in the near fu-
Number of Launched Satellites

1000
ture [20]. In particular, the recent technological progress has
evolved the possibility of constructing a chain production
800
of cheaper NGSO satellites with very short lifespans [21].
Accordingly, the satellite infrastructure will be more regularly
600 upgraded, and thus, the payload design can be more innovative
in terms of on-board technologies [22]. Evidently, NGSO
400 satellites can create new capabilities and services for different
enterprise verticals and could also open up many new oppor-
200 tunities for innovative applications [23]. However, that comes
with some important questions about their operations and the
0 required developments. Thereby, the purpose of this work is
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
Year
providing a survey of key research progress in this rising
field from the communication perspective, identifying the
Fig. 1. Comparison between GSO and NGSO in terms of the number of key deployment challenges, along with highlighting promising
launched satellites per year [15]. future research directions for NGSO systems.

All of the aforementioned NGSO advantages revive the B. Prior Related Surveys
notion of utilizing large fleets of lower orbit satellites to pro- Over the last few years, a number of good surveys and
vide reliable, low-latency, and high-speed Internet from space, tutorials pertained to satellite communications appeared in the
which has re-gained popularity and experienced a tremendous literature, [24]–[37], to report and study the technical develop-
growth in the last few years [12]. This trend is rather surprising ments and challenges, including satellite network architectures,
given the unfortunate faring of past NGSO constellations, but attributes and applications of lower orbit satellites, satellite-
it appears that both technological and business momentums terrestrial systems integration, and small satellite systems. In
are favorable with impressive achievements from SpaceX, SES the following, research scope and contributions of the relevant
O3B, and OneWeb [13]. In fact, between 2014 and 2016, a surveys will be briefly presented. Afterwards, a comparison
new wave of proposals for large LEO constellations emerged between these surveys and our work in this paper will be
with the target of providing global broadband services [14]. summarized at a glance in Table I in order to point out the
Specifically, the number of satellites were launched into space distinctive contribution of our survey.
has dramatically increased according to the recent satellite Convergence of satellite and terrestrial networks is surveyed
database released by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) in [24] with focusing on scenarios in which satellite networks
[15]. This database has listed more than 4,000 operational complement existing terrestrial infrastructures. In this, the
satellites currently in orbit around Earth with huge difference technical challenges associated with the convergence of satel-
between the number of GSO and NGSO satellites in favor of lite and terrestrial networks to provide ubiquitous connectivity
the latter as depicted in Fig. 1. in rural and remote areas are identified. The work in [25]
Furthermore, the most recent developments in NGSO sys- surveys the research efforts for implementing inter-satellite
tems empower satellites to manage narrow steerable beams communication for small satellite systems, by reviewing vari-
covering a relatively broad area, which facilities the use of ous constellation design parameters within the first three layers
smaller and lower cost equipment at the user terminals [16]. of OSI model, i.e., physical, data link, and network layer.
Hence, NGSO satellite capabilities of ubiquitous coverage and The available research works on space-air-ground integrated
connectivity can be leveraged for provisioning resiliency and networks have been surveyed in [26], where the aspects of
continuity of 5G services to the mobile platforms such as on- network design, resource allocation and optimization, protocol
board aircraft, high-speed trains, sea-going vessels, and land- planning, and performance analysis are covered. The work
based vehicles that are beyond the reach of a cell site [17]. in [26] has also pointed out the key technical challenges
More importantly, the offered capacities by NGSO satellites and design issues for deploying space-air-ground integrated
can be further increased by utilizing high frequencies along networks and provided some future research directions that
with throughput enhancement techniques such as spectrum might be worthy of further investigations.
sharing, cooperative gateway diversity, user clustering and Moreover, the limitations of land mobile satellite (LMS)
interference mitigation, and multiple antenna communications systems in terms of connectivity, stability, and reliability are
[18]. For instance, the emerging NGSO satellites and mega studied in [27], where the LMS is considered as a satellite-
constellations such as SES O3b, OneWeb, Telesat, and Starlink based communication system that can serve ground users in
have a system capacity reaching the terabits-per-second level different areas. LMS systems are overviewed based on satellite
[19]. orbits, operating frequency bands, and signal propagation

2
along with highlighting some future research challenges. Be- the challenges of deploying hybrid satellite-terrestrial networks
sides, the recent advances and development trends in the field and explored the complicated coupling relationships therein.
of small satellites are explored in [28] with emphasizing the In [37], the setup of hybrid satellite-terrestrial networks is
aspects of satellite communications such as the use of higher considered as a combination of basic cooperative models
frequency bands, optical communications, new protocols, and that contain the main entities of satellite-terrestrial integration
the applicable architectures and use cases. and are simpler and tractable compared to the large-scale
The survey in [29] has captured the recent technical ad- heterogeneous hybrid satellite-terrestrial networks.
vances in scientific, industrial and standardization analyses The abovementioned surveys have addressed important as-
in the domain of satellite communications with presenting pects of satellite developments but there still lacks a survey
the important research directions for satellite communication providing comprehensive discussions on the whole multi-
applications and use cases such as new constellation types, orbit NGSO communication system aspects, presenting NGSO
on-board processing capabilities, non-terrestrial networks and integration challenges within the existing wireless networks,
space-based data collection and processing. A review of and identifying future research directions and opportunities.
the state-of-the-art research progress of satellite communica- This observation has motivated composing this article to
tions covering LMS communication networks, hybrid satellite- provide an in-depth discussion on the communication aspects
terrestrial relay networks, and satellite-terrestrial integrated of NGSO satellites with current and future terrestrial networks
networks is provided in [30] under the framework of physical- to ensure full coverage consistent with the existing satellite
layer security. The potentials and challenges of satellite-based constellations and GSO systems. In addition, regarding NGSO
Internet of things (IoT) architecture have been also studied in challenges, the existing survey articles provide only high-
[30], along with popularized performance metrics in order to level discussions. For instance, the regulatory and coexistence
evaluate system security. challenges have been briefly covered in the previous works,
Authors in [31] have reviewed the connectivity challenges while the user equipment requirements and advances have
in LEO small-satellite constellations, along with the essential not been explored in the open literature. Furthermore, it is
architectural and technological components that will enable 5G essential to have a wide-ranging survey as NGSO systems
connectivity through LEO satellites. Reference [32] reviews have started to gain momentum recently in both academia
the literature of CubeSat communications through exploring and industry, accordingly such a survey can benefit readers
some relevant aspects such as channel modeling, modula- from both communities. Therefore, this survey paper aims at
tion and coding, coverage, networking, and constellation- exploring the state-of-the-art NGSO research findings from the
and-coverage issues, along with highlighting future research communication perspective, discussing the NGSO deployment
challenges for enabling the concept of Internet of space things. hurdles, and providing future opportunities for further NGSO
Networking and routing aspects of small satellite systems research activities.
are considered in the survey in [33] with special focus on
C. Scope and Contributions
inter-satellite routing protocols and the performance of delay
tolerant (DTN) and non-delay tolerant (Non-DTN) schemes The major objective of this paper is to give the reader
under different CubeSat network sittings. the technological trends and future prospects of the multi-
In [34], the architectural and technological challenges of orbit NGSO satellite communication systems including space-
integrating satellites into 5G systems for both physical and based Internet providers and the small satellites for space
medium access control (MAC) layers has been discussed in downstream missions. This paper differs from the existing
the context of the proposed 3GPP NTN systems. In this, surveys on satellite communications in the following aspects.
different NTN scenarios for satellite-based 5G communica- First, we present a comprehensive survey on the NGSO
tions have been analyzed and reviewed in terms of satellite communication system aspects starting from the physical layer
orbits, payload types, protocol design, and radio interfaces. up to the application layer and the overall structural design
Similarly, the work in [35] studies the 3GPP NTN features and visions, which is the central theme of the this paper. In
their deployment potentials within 5G and beyond networks addition, this survey summarizes NGSO satellite features and
through reviewing current 3GPP research activities, discussing use cases to provide a quick reference for both researchers
the open issues of NTN over the wireless communication and practitioners. Next, we provide a wide-ranging analysis for
landscape, and identifying future research directions of NTN NGSO system development, deployment, and integration chal-
evolution in connection to terrestrial communications. lenges, as well as the operational issues, for which potential
Similarly, the requirements of satellite-terrestrial network solutions are also provided. Further, several innovative visions
convergence are reviewed in [36] with summarizing the rel- and future research directions motivated by utilizing NGSO
evant architectures of existing literature, classifying the tax- systems are discussed in the context of other 5G technologies.
onomy of researches on satellite-terrestrial networks, and pre- In a nutshell, the key contributions of this paper can be
senting the performance evaluation works in different satellite- summarized as follows:
terrestrial networks, together with providing the state-of-the- • A detailed review and classification for the different
art of standardization, projects and the key application areas NGSO systems are presented based on their applications.
of satellite-terrestrial networks. The work in [37] has studied Specifically, both the emerging NGSO mega-constellation

3
 TABLE I
C OMPARISON WITH PREVIOUS SURVEYS

Our
Reference [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] paper
Covered 2016 2016 2018 2019 2019 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2021 2022
scope
Space-based Internet systems X X X X X X X X X
NGSO space missions X X X X X X X X X X
Regulatory and coexistence issues X
Constellation design methods X X X X X X X X X X X X
NGSO operational challenges X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
User equipment requirements X
Inter-satellite connectivity X X X X X X X X X X X
NGSO active antenna systems X X
Waveform design and access schemes X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Software-defined satellites X X X X X X X X X X X
In-space backhauling X X X X X X X X X
Satellite network slicing X X X X X X
Resource optimization X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Interference management X X X X X X X X X
Secure communications X X X X X X X X
Space broadband connectivity X
Open RAN architecture X

for broadband services and the space downstream mis- that require more research efforts for enabling seamless inte-
sions are discussed. gration and efficient operations. Future research directions and
• An in-depth discussion on the NGSO communication opportunities are described in Section V. This article is then
systems is provided by exploring the physical layer concluded in Section VI. For the sake of clarity, we provide
technologies and radio access schemes along with ex- Fig. 2 to show the structure and organization of this paper, we
ploring the networking aspects, and the overall system also list the acronyms that will be frequently used in this paper
characteristics and architectures. along with their definitions in Table II for ease of reference.
• A state-of-the-art knowledge and studies are discussed
regarding NGSO satellite deployment challenges includ- II. NGSO S YSTEM C HARACTERISTICS AND
ing coexistence with GSO systems and regulatory issues, C LASSIFICATION
satellite constellation designs, system operational issues,
and user hardware capabilities and requirements. We can differentiate two categories of NGSO satellite sys-
• The expected evolution in satellite and terrestrial-satellite tems, as described by International Telecommunication Union
integrated communication systems are extensively studied (ITU): (i) the early systems that were designed to provide
alongside with the relevant innovative research directions voice and low-rate data services, and (ii) the recent NGSO
of utilizing NGSO features for versatile communication constellations that were introduced for provisioning global
infrastructure systems. broadband services. In the first category, Iridium, Globalstar,
• New application scenarios of NGSO satellites are pre- and Orbcomm are the three projects that became operational
sented with exploring the potential technical advances in and started service in late 1990s; despite, these systems went
the future communication systems and networking due to through bankruptcy around the year 2000, but later they
NGSO involvements. have survived and are still operational [38]. Typically, the
This paper can serve as a valuable resource for understand- frequency bands of the mobile satellite service (MSS) were
ing the current research contributions in this evolving area used; namely, portions of L-band and S-band were assigned for
of satellite communications that may probably initiate further uplink and downlink to enable the satellites to provide service
research efforts. globally [39]. The second category of NGSO constellations is
in competition with the high-throughput satellites. Specifically,
D. Structure and Organization multiple projects have been already announced in this category
The reminder of this paper is organized as follows. NGSO but there exists only two operational systems to date, i.e.
system definition and classification are elaborated in Section II. O3b and Starlink [40]. Further, OneWeb was one of the
In Section III, NGSO communication prospects are discussed early projects that launched more than 70 satellites, which
starting from the physical layer technologies and radio access also survived bankruptcy in 2020. Another early project was
schemes along with exploring the networking aspects, and LeoSat that planned to deliver high-speed Internet using 108
then, the overall system characteristics and architectures are satellites, which folded in 2019 due to lack of investment [41].
studied. Section IV presents the NGSO deployment challenges Additionally, these modern systems use frequency bands of the

4
 Section I
Introduction

Space-based Internet providers

Section II
NGSO System Characteristics and
Classification NGSO space missions
• Antenna systems
• Link budget
Physical and radio access aspects • Inter-satellite links
• Waveform design
• Access design

• Space information networks

Section III • In-space backhauling
Space networking aspects
NGSO communication prospects • Software-defined networking
• Network Slicing

• Resources optimization
•
Paper structure

Interference management
System and architectural aspects
• Spectrum sharing
• Secure communication

Regulatory and coexistence issues

Satellite constellation design

Section IV
NGSO deployment challenges
System operational issues

User equipment

Open RAN architecture

Broadband connectivity for space

Edge computing
Section V
Future research directions and Space-based cloud
opportunities
IoT via NGSO satellites

Caching over NGSO satellites

Aerial platforms and NGSO

Section VI
Conclusions

Fig. 2. Structure and organization of the paper

fixed satellite service for the user links, i.e. the Ku- and Ka/K- such systems offer consequently a very high throughput and
bands. There is also a possibility to add higher frequencies spectral efficiency [42]. Further, the communication through
in the future for some systems, where even more bandwidth the satellite constellations can bypass the terrestrial network
is available. More information about the current frontrunner infrastructure when they are connected via inter-satellite links
projects for the communication with a constellation of satel- (ISLs) for routing communication data in space, which will
lites will be presented in the next subsection. definitely improve the privacy of data transmissions [43]. In
addition to the reduced signal propagation delays in NGSO
In addition to the aforementioned intrinsic features and communication systems comparing to GSO, low orbit con-
advantages of NGSO satellites, there are more motives for stellations with ISLs have also lower delays than terrestrial
the rising interest in NGSO constellations over the traditional fiber-optic systems since the speed of light in vacuum (free
GSO systems. Particularly, since NGSO systems require a space) is approximately 50% higher than in a fiber-optic cable
large number of satellites to provide uninterrupted service

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 TABLE II
L IST OF I MPORTANT ACRONYMS

Acronym Definition Acronym Definition

5G Fifth-Generation LEO Low Earth Orbit
6G Sixth-Generation LMS Land Mobile Satellite
AAS American Astronomical Society LTE-A Long Term Evolution-Advance
ADS-B Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast MAC Medium Access Control
AI Artificial Intelligence MEO Medium Earth Orbit
AIS Automatic Identification System ML Machine Learning
AoA Angle-of-Arrival mmWave millimeter Wave
BCT Block-Chain Technology MSS Mobile Satellite Service
CA Carrier Aggregation NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration (USA)
CAPEX Capital Expenditures NB Narrow-Band
CCSDS Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems NCC Network Control Centre
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access NFV Network Function Virtualization
CNR Carrier-to-Noise Ratio NGSO Non-Geostationary Orbit
CSMA Carrier Sense Multiple Access NMC Network Management Centre
DDoS Distributed Denial-of-Service NOMA Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access
DoS Denial-of-Service Non-DTN Non-Delay Tolerant
DTN Delay Tolerant NTN Non-Terrestrial Networks
DVB Digital Video Broadcast O3K On-Off Keying
ECEF Earth-Centered Earth-Fixed OPEX Operating expense
ECI Earth-Centered Inertial ORAN Open Radio Access Network
EDRS European Data Relay System PFD Power Flux Density
EIRP Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power QKD Quantum Key Distribution
EPFD Effective Power Flux Density RAS Radio Astronomy Service
ESA European Space Agency RF Radio Frequency
FCC Federal Communications Commission (USA) RTD Round Trip Delay
FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access SDN Software-Defined Networking
FSO Free Space Optical SIC Successive Interference Cancellation
FSS Fixed Satellite Service SIGINT Signals Intelligence
GPS Global Positioning Satellite SIN Space Information Network
GSO Geostationary Orbit SMN Space Mobile Network
HAPS High Altitude Platform Station SNG Satellite News Gathering
HEO Highly Elliptical Orbit SNR Signal-to-Noise Ratio
IAU International Astronomical Union TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
IOL Inter-Orbit Link TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
IoT Internet of things TESS Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
ISL Inter-Satellite Link UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
ITU International Telecommunication Union UCS Union of Concerned Scientists
JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency VSAT Very Small Aperture Terminal

(3 × 108 versus 2 × 108 m/s) [44]. Moreover, since some of cess to terrestrial broadband infrastructure [46]. Thus, NGSO
the NGSO constellations (operational and planned) utilize non- space-based Internet systems can reach the developing world
equatorial orbits, they naturally can cover higher latitudes than where it is financially unfeasible to lay fiber-optic networks.
GSO satellites [45]. Additionally, high-latitude populations in some regions such
Accordingly, these advantages have increased the involve- as Alaska, northern Canada, and Russia can be served by these
ment of NGSO satellites in plentiful applications, such as space-based Internet systems, which are currently served by
telecommunications, Earth and space observation, navigation, a poor terrestrial communication infrastructure. Further, many
asset tracking, meteorology, and scientific projects. In this advantages and enhancements can be achieved by employing
section, we classify NGSO systems depending on the provided NGSO space-based Internet systems to serve the growing
services into two groups: space-based Internet providers and broadband requirements of maritime and aeronautical services
space missions as follows. [47].
A space-based Internet system generally consists of three
A. Space-based Internet Providers main components: space segment, ground segment, and user
NGSO space-based Internet providers aim to provide high- segment (see Figure 3). The space segment can be a satellite or
speed low-latency Internet access competitive with terrestrial a constellation of satellites, while the ground segment involves
broadband communications. This will not only empower satel- a number of ground stations/gateways that relay Internet data
lite communications to compete for long-distance backhaul to and from the space segment, and the user segment includes
and mobile users but also address underserved populations, a small antenna at the user location, often a very small aperture
where currently only 39% of the worlds population have ac- terminal (VSAT) antenna with a transceiver. Additional critical

6
 • OneWeb: Satellite constellation of OneWeb will comprise
ISL ISL Space 648 satellites by the end of 2022 according to the latest
segment updates, among which 110 are already launched [52]. In
this initial phase the satellites will be placed in 18 circular
polar orbit planes at an altitude of 1200 km, where each
plane is inclined at 87◦ [14]. OneWeb space segment will
Satellite
VSAT
Gateway/Hub
have a transparent bent-pipe payload with non-steerable,
highly-elliptical user beams. Their coverage on Earth will
Network guarantee that every on-ground user will be within the
User Control Centre line-of-sight (LoS) of at least one satellite communicating
Internet
(NCC) at a minimum elevation angle of 55◦ . In addition, each
User segment Ground segment satellite will contain two steerable gateway antennas,
where one of them will be active, while the other will
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram for a space-based Internet system. assist as a back-up for handover procedures [14].
• O3b of SES: This provider was founded in 2007 and
stand for the other 3 billion. Its aim is to provide Tier 1
entities within this structure are (i) network management Internet connections to the developing countries, as often
centre (NMC) and (ii) network control centre (NCC) [48]. they are constricted by their international connections.
The centralized NMC is the functional entity in charge of The space segment architecture of O3b is based upon
the management of all the system elements such as fault, 20 satellites (started with the launch of four satellites in
configuration, performance, and security management. The 2013) in equatorial circular orbit at an altitude of 8000
NCC is the functional entity that provides real-time control km delivering low latency fibre-like connectivity to any
signalling such as session/connection control, routing, access area approximately 45 degrees north and south of the
control to satellite resources, etc. [49]. equator with offering user-level broadband services at
The space-based Internet services have been in use for around 500 Mbit/sec [53]. In this system, twelve reflector
several years now, but only for a limited number of users, and antennas are mounted on the largest spacecraft surface,
most of the existing systems utilize GSO satellites (e.g. SES, two antennas are used for gateway links, while the
Inmarsat, Viasat, Eutelsat) [50]. However, it is well known other 10 support user links. These antennas are moving
that the latency is one of the main impairments in GSO constantly to track the spots they are intended to serve
communication systems in addition to the high propagation on ground. SES has also O3b mPOWER project that
path loss. This is also the reason why GSO-based Internet initially comprises 11 MEO satellites to provide multiple
systems cannot be used for particular services that require terabits of global broadband connectivity for applications
a low latency connectivity, and why NGSO satellites are including cellular backhaul to remote rural locations. The
becoming more popular for high-speed broadband services. In O3b mPOWER satellites use steerable spot beams that
addition, being closer to Earth means that signal propagation can be shifted and scaled in real-time to fulfil users’
path loss is low and requires smaller antennas at the user needs, and they will operate in conjunction with the
side, which allows to serve new types of users. Among existing SES fleets. Fig. 4 shows an example of a multi-
these providers we summarize some major satellite mega- orbit space-based Internet provides similar to the O3b
constellations as follows. mPOWER constellation pattern.
• Starlink of SpaceX: Starlink constellation is expected to
contain nearly 12000 satellites in the initial phase with
a possible later extension to 42000 [51]. The first 12000
satellites are planned to orbit in three different altitudes
above Earth: 1440 in a 550 km altitude, 2825 at 1110
km altitude and 7500 satellites at 340 km. Regarding
the space segment, the satellites have four phased array
antennas of approximately equal size to serve the Ka/K
band beams, with separate antennas for reception and
transmission. Each satellite will carry a regenerative
payload with a phased array antenna which will allow
Fig. 4. Constellation topology of a multi-orbit NGSO system.
each of the beams to be individually steered towards the
on-ground users. The minimum elevation angle for a user In addition, many private sector companies worldwide fore-
terminal to communicate with the satellites is 40◦ , while see market opportunities to extend their services via NGSO
the total throughput per satellite is envisioned to be 17- constellations. For instance, Amazon plans to launch over
23 Gbps, depending on the characteristics of the user 3,000 LEO satellites through “Project Kuiper” to offer high-
terminals [14]. speed broadband connectivity to people globally [54]. LeoSat

7
is launching a constellation of up to 108 satellites to provide etc. Lower orbit constellations also have the ability to
data communications in the challenging polar regions of the strengthen wireless networks and provide solutions for
world. Telesat LEO plans to have 177 satellites and has precise control of vehicles and mobile resources, even in
already received an initial license to start providing service inaccessible areas [60].
in Canada. Boeing also plans to have 2,956 satellites in orbit • Logistics companies can track their enormous amount of
and 1,396 satellites will be launched within the first 6 years. goods and products in real time and can estimate the
Huawei plans to build a 10,000 satellite LEO constellation time of arrival of any product regardless of its price
called Massive VLEO for beyond 5G systems, where a low by using NGSO satellite constellations. Small satellite
satellite altitude of 300 km will be used for ultra-reliable constellations are an effective solution to improve se-
low-latency communications, the large number of satellites curity, control and traceability in the logistics sector
will cover the massive machine-type communications and by tracking containers, goods, and machinery that may
broadband communications [40]. These are not all the involved require controlled transport conditions (e.g., temperature
companies in this rapidly growing market and listing all of and movement) and different means of transport to reach
them is beyond the scope of this paper. their destinations (e.g., road, rail, airplane, ship) [61].
• Maritime tracking to ensure the safety of each type of
B. NGSO Space Missions
vessels and to control some problems that often affect
Space has become more affordable and accessible than maritime traffic can be improved with help of NGSO
ever due to the recent evolution of satellite technologies and small satellites. Additionally, in areas of low coverage
the emergence of small satellites; namely, in addition to the with limited access of terrestrial networks, small satellites
traditional players in space sector, any country, university, can be helpful to ensure at all times the location and
startup or even school can now reach space in an affordable control of vessels [62].
way and within short periods. Thus, the sky is not the limit any • Aircraft tracking to obtain accurate information in sec-
longer, where these developments have unlocked the missions onds in different areas is already existed using terres-
that satellite can carry and execute for different needs and trial systems. However, most of the recent and biggest
applications. In this subsection, we outline and concisely air tragedies regarding to disappearance of planes have
present some of the current and most relevant space missions happened in shaded areas. To avoid such issues, NGSO
in the context of NGSO satellites. small satellite-based solutions for automatic dependent
1) Earth and Space Observation: One of the most surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) systems can be very
widespread uses of satellite constellations in different orbits helpful to increase safety, improve air traffic control,
is capturing high-resolution images of Earth and outer space receive certain information provided by flight sensors in
as the current technology makes it possible to have latest- real time and know at all times the exact location of the
generation cameras that fit perfectly to the size of small aircraft [62].
satellites [55]. On one hand, NGSO satellites have made far-
In this perspective, the private venture Spire Global [63]
reaching enhancements in the field of cartography to provide
operates a large multi-purpose constellation of nanosatellites
accurate and up-to-date maps, from the most remote to the
for tracking the maritime, aviation and weather patterns. They
most populated areas on Earth [56]. On the other hand,
collect and offer datasets include Automatic Identification
utilizing small satellites to obtain information and images of
System (AIS) data that contains the movements of ships
outer space is attracting more attention to search for transiting
and vessels across the world, ADS-B data that constructed
exoplanets and space exploration. For instance, NASA has
from tracking airplanes across global airways, and real-time
launched transiting exoplanet survey satellite (TESS) system
weather conditions. Additionally, instead of observing the
in 2018 in its missions for searching for planets outside of
Earth in the visible domain using cameras, KLEOS [64] as
our solar system [57], including those that could support life.
private company is utilizing LEO satellites to locate radio
Another proposals proceeding in this field involve the use of
transmissions from different devices, a sort of reverse GPS.
small satellites as guide star for latest generation telescopes,
This radio-frequency-mapping can benefit the maritime market
which require steady references to explore and capture quality
for locating ships that may have lost connection with their
images of exoplanets and celestial bodies [58].
transponders. They also offer locating dark, unseen, obscured,
2) Asset Tracking: One of the main NGSO satellite fields
obfuscated, covert maritime activity that may indicate activi-
is asset tracking owing to their capability of ensuring a stable
ties such as illegal fishing and trafficking.
and precise service with a complete coverage anywhere on the
planet. Satellite payload in asset tracking projects consists of 3) Scientific and Environmental Missions: Missions in this
a device equipped with communication components to collect category involve very broad applications and experiments in
information sent from objects on ground and to transmit it space within a wide range of disciplines, and the objective of
back to ground stations [59]. The main practical applications each mission determines the payload of satellites [65], [66].
of NGSO missions in this field include but not limited to: NGSO satellite can facilitate some missions that employ small
• Fleet management where satellite tracking of all types of
satellites as summarized in the following use cases:
vehicles such as cars, trucks, buses, industrial machinery, • Meteorology: NGSO Small satellites can play a signifi-

8
 cant role in storm detection and in the development of cli- small satellites for more practical applications. For instance, an
mate and weather models that enhance weather forecasts. important advance is the introduction of artificial intelligence
For instance, RainCube project (Radar in a CubeSat) (AI) to space networks. In addition to enabling automatic
of NASA has already entered the testing phase for the learning systems using AI for satellite constellation manage-
location, tracking and analysis of rain and snowstorms ment, intelligent ground station networks will optimize the
all over the planet [67]. control and operation of such a massive and diverse system
• Agriculture: Crop monitoring is another potential use architecture.
of small satellites, where a better control of harvests,
the improvement of the quality of agricultural products, III. NGSO C OMMUNICATION P ROSPECTS
the finding of diseases in crops, and analysis of the
Basically, a communication system serves to transfer in-
ramifications derived from the periods of drought can be
formation through a channel extends from the transmitter
accomplished by using NGSO satellites [68], [69].
to the receiver [76]. Due to the typical limitations of the
• Educational activities: The development of scientific ex-
terrestrial wireless communications in terms of coverage and
periments outside the Earth has become another common
capacity, it appears extremely challenging, if not impossible,
application of small satellites, which are unprecedented
to provide a global wireless connectivity with sufficient quality
opportunities brought up by NGSO small satellites with
of service especially in harsh environments such as ocean
their countless possibilities [70].
and mountains [77]. Alternatively, satellites have the ability
• Environmental protection: Several projects can be con-
to serve distant locations by redirecting the signals received
ducted in this context based on small satellite, such as
from a transmitting device on Earth back via a transponder,
detection and monitoring of forest fires, studying the
i.e. satellites can establish a communication channel between a
progress of melting ice, fighting against ocean pollution,
transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. Thus,
detection of oil spills and spills, monitoring of marine life,
satellite systems have the capacity to extend communication
controlling of desertification, along with other initiatives
coverage to isolated or remote islands and communities, and
[71].
fulfilling the needs of areas and countries with limited infras-
4) Government Space Programs: Small satellite develop- tructure investments [78]. Therefore, it is critical to utilize
ments have backed the so-called space democratization after miscellaneous communication systems and architectures to
some many years of controlling the space by a handful of accommodate the increasing growth in the number of users
countries, as it is now reachable by not only companies and and services in various scenarios and applications [79].
startups, but also countries that want to launch their space At the moment, satellite communication systems are going
programs or to expand their current capabilities [72]. The goals through a profound change due to the rise of NGSO con-
of these government programs varies from national security stellations alongside with the existing GSO satellites [80].
to emergency response. For example, small satellite can be Specifically, GSO systems are in constant contact with ground
used for signals intelligence (SIGINT) [73] by monitoring stations where these stations control the GSO operations, while
the radio electric and electromagnetic spectrum, identifying NGSO systems will need to be built on more autonomous and
signals from the Earth and space, observing communication reconfigurable architectures, and the assumption of persistent
traffic patterns, detecting interference and locating its origin, contact with ground stations is no longer feasible in the
preventing the illegal use of radio bands and unauthorized NGSO setup [81]. This impediment inflicts several critical
emissions. Moreover, in crisis and natural disasters such as issues upon the communication framework of NGSO satellite
Earthquakes, tsunamis or hurricanes, small satellites can help constellations. Thus, this section focuses on the key research
to act quickly, to immediately know the degree of the damage progress for utilizing NGSO satellites to further advance the
and to manage relief and rescue teams. Additionally, some communication systems. Through this, we will start discussing
existing applications of small satellites in tackling potential physical layer technologies and radio access schemes, and
threats from outer space have focused on the study and then, moving forward to explore the networking aspects. Next,
possible diversion of potentially dangerous asteroids for our the overall system characteristics and architectures of the
planet, such as the Hera project of the European Space Agency evolving NGSO constellations will be presented.
(ESA) [74]. In space exploration missions, small satellites are
gradually gaining prominence, e.g. NASA’s InSight mission A. Physical and Radio Access Aspects
has already sent nanosatellites to travel into deep space to Physical connectivity and accessing the multi-orbit satellites
provide real-time telemetry of the spacecraft landing on Mars are crucial factors that seriously affect the communication
[75]. quality and system performance. Therefore, we focus in
Beyond the aforementioned features and applications, this subsection on understanding the relevant physical/link
NewSpace will continue to be an endless source of new re- procedures and features including antenna system and link
search and application opportunities. Besides, many promising budget analysis along with reviewing the recent developments
technical advances are anticipated to emerge in the future concerning inter-satellite connectivity, waveform design, and
satellite systems that will boost NGSO constellations and link diversity and multiplexing.

9
 1) Antenna Systems: The multi-beam antenna and the spectral efficiency, and achieve high data rates [90]. However,
phased array are mainly used in NGSO satellites, which massive MIMO allows distant beams to reuse frequency, which
provide a large number of higher-gain small beams, and may bring about inter-beam interference due to the non-
thus, increase system capacity over the entire coverage area. zero side lobes. Therefore, side lobe suppression technologies
Additionally, frequency and polarization are commonly reused are required for the use of massive beamforming in NGSO
within the generated beam patterns. The direct-radiating array satellites [85]. Generally, the available studies to investigate
is also employed on NGSO satellites owing to its wide scan- MIMO technology in NGSO satellite systems are limited. In
ning angles and the better off-boresight performance (lower [91], the deployment of massive MIMO in LEO satellites
scan loss) than that provided by a phased array antenna [41]. is studied with considering the LEO satellites are equipped
In this context, the effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) is with uniform planar arrays of antennas to serve ground users
a parameter characterizing transmit antennas, which is equal through precoding and user grouping based on statistical CSI.
to the product of the transmitted peak power and antenna Authors of [92] have modeled ground gateway stations and
maximum gain, and hence, it represents one of the driving visible LEO satellites as a bipartite graph and proposed a
parameters for the design of a satellite link budget [82]. A maximum matching based solution to select the satellites that
procedure to estimate the NGSO satellite EIRP is given by the could be connected to every ground station considering basic
ITU in the recommendation ITU-R S.1512 [83]. Furthermore, MIMO concepts to deal with this multi-connectivity. In [93],
the choice of antenna type and specifications for a particular the capacity of LEO-MIMO systems is analyzed considering
application have many drivers such as orbit, carrier frequency, the Doppler shift and allocating different channels for data and
beam size, flexibility, edge-of-coverage gain roll-off, and cost. control signals.
Additionally, active antennas have been also evaluated to be To further advance this interesting integration, more studies
used for lower orbit satellites, which are antennas encompass to exploit and explore other aspects and capabilities will be
active electronic components like transistors in opposite to the beneficial such as investigating the network architecture, chan-
passive antennas that simply consist of inactive components nel estimation, precoding, inter-user interference, etc. Addi-
such as metal rods, capacitors and inductors [84]. Thereby, in- tionally, inter-satellite communications may consider massive
troducing active antenna system technology to NGSO satellites MIMO within the high frequency bands to realize high-speed
opens up new opportunities for developing flexible multi-beam data transmission and flexible network architecture but that
payloads and for exploiting massive MIMO techniques in requires accurate and fast channel estimation. Angle-of-arrival
satellite communications [85]. With the active antenna system (AoA) is promising technology in this setup for improving
technology, it is possible to have more controllable antenna the multiplexing gain and radio link quality especially in
ports as baseband, which will offer higher spatial degree- the regions with poor signal strength [94]. Moreover, the
of-freedom for deploying flexible beamforming technology high density of mega-constellation along with the simulta-
[86]. These advances empower satellite platforms to serve neous visibility of more NGSO satellites can be exploited
moving user terminals and enable more swift multi-orbit to establish cell-free massive MIMO architecture to benefit
interoperability. from the efficient duplexing technique, pilot assignment, and
In the past, pointing to multiple satellites or to different handover management, and then, a substantial performance
orbits was limited to governmental and institutional users, improvement can be achieved [95].
security and defense satellite applications and business ded- 2) Link Budget: Miniaturizing satellites in NGSO systems
icated networks mainly due to the high cost and size of user imposes restrictions on the payload design, and hence, limiting
antenna [87]. However, the new low-cost, electronic-array- the transmit power and antenna aperture, which directly affects
based flat-antenna are expected to be a game changer for satellite link budget. To quantify the link budget differences
expanding the role that NGSO satellites play in connecting between GSO and NGSO satellites, the recent 3GPP technical
devices, with little installation, configuration and maintenance notes in [6], [7] are used and the results are presented in Table
effort [88]. With its rapid switching speeds and agility to III. Specifically, two types of user terminals and frequency
track and switch seamlessly and reliably between satellites and bands are considered, i.e. an handheld in the S-band and a
constellations, flat-antenna arrays enable the exploitation of the VSAT in Ka-band. For other scenarios and configurations, the
essential advantages provided by the combination of multiple interested reader can refer to [6], [96], [97]. Clearly, one can
constellations by proper beam steering and interference nulling observe that the obtained very low carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR)
capabilities. at the handheld terminal is very poor when GSO satellite is
Similar to the terrestrial systems, multiuser precoding and employed. In contrast, LEO link achieves a better CNR at
detection techniques are expected to be widely adapted in the handheld terminal. For the VSAT terminal, both GSO and
NGSO systems, where they could be used either by regen- LEO links have good link budgets owing to the high antenna
erative onboard processors or ground end-to-end from bent- gain and transmit power of the VSAT terminal but still LEO
pipe satellites [89]. Both user terminals and satellites can use link outperforms the GSO link by up to 16 dB in uplink.
active phased-arrays antenna for transmission and receiving NGSO communication links have lower signal losses and
to overcome the propagation loss. In this context, massive smaller propagation delays comparing to the GSO links thanks
MIMO can substantially increase degrees of freedom, enhance to the lower orbits [98]. In fact, these advantages can be

10
exploited in several ways such as miniaturizing the user TABLE III
equipment, reducing user terminal consumption power, in- NGSO AND GSO SYSTEM PARAMETERS FOR NUMERICAL LINK BUDGET
EVALUATION .
creasing the spectral efficiency, and targeting latency-critical
applications [99]. Furthermore, this may allow a smooth adop- Parameters Values
tion of commercial off-the-shelf modems as user terminals User Terminal VSAT handheld
(e.g. smartphones and terrestrial IoT devices) to seamlessly (Ka-band) (S-band)
Satellite orbit GSO LEO GSO LEO
work with NGSO satellites [100]. In order to quantify these
Elevation angle (degree) 30 30 30 30
advantages, we calculated the round trip delay (RTD) for RTD in forward link (ms) 515.18 14.35 515.18 14.35
both GSO and NGSO communication systems. The results are Downlink
depicted in Table III, where an LEO satellite at an altitude of Frequency (GHz) 20 20 2 2
600 km is considered as an example for the NGSO systems. Bandwidth (MHz) 100 100 10 10
Obviously, the RTD in the LEO link is about 36 times lower Free space loss (dB) 210.20 179.10 190.20 159.10
Atmospheric loss (dB) 0.52 0.52 0.07 0.07
than in the GSO link, which is a big difference.
Shadowing margin (dB) 0.00 0.00 3.00 3.00
The mobility of NGSO satellite brings about a variable Scintillation loss (dB) 0.30 0.30 2.20 2.20
receive power at the ground terminals, which is then repre- EIRP-satellite (dBm) 90 54 99 74
sented as a function of the ground antenna elevation and the G/T-user (dB/K) 15.86 15.86 -31.62 -31.62
slant path through the atmosphere [101]. Besides, the high CNR (dB) 13.44 8.54 0.51 6.61
mobility of NGSO satellites causes the well-known Doppler Uplink
phenomenon and its potential impact on communication links. Frequency (GHz) 30 30 2 2
Bandwidth (MHz) 100 100 1 1
Doppler effect makes a time-varying frequency offset and that
Free space loss (dB) 213.73 182.62 190.20 159.10
will complicate the channel estimation process and increase Atmospheric loss (dB) 0.50 0.50 0.07 0.07
the need for high channel estimation overheads. Several ap- Shadowing margin (dB) 0.00 0.00 3.00 3.00
proaches have been proposed in the literature to overcome this Scintillation loss (dB) 0.30 0.30 2.20 2.20
issue. For example, a state-space method proposed in [102] EIRP-user (dBm) 76.21 76.21 23.01 23.01
for tracking channel variations for satellite links with high G/T-satellite (dB/K) 28 13 19 1.1
CNR (dB) 8.28 24.39 -14.86 -1.66
Doppler frequency shifts. Reference [103] has developed an
analytical framework for statistical characterization of Doppler
shift in an NTN where LEO satellites provide communication
to ground users. Likewise, another challenge resulting from attenuation, deploying THz communications in space applica-
satellite mobility is the time-varying visibility of NGSO satel- tions in the atmosphere-free environment circumvents this con-
lites, which can be relaxed by different techniques such as straint and achieves high-speed long-distance links between
a proper constellation planning, [20], and design a visibility satellites. However, there are still a number of open challenges
matrix with a time-varying satellite topology [104]. for THz satellite communications particularity in terms of
3) Inter-satellite Links: ISLs play an important role in the semiconductor technologies. For example, it is prohibitively
formation of satellite networks especially for NGSO systems. difficult to produce high power THz transmitters and current
They enable command, control, communication and informa- THz receivers prone to higher noise figures. Thereby, with
tion processing with real time or near real time communication more research efforts dedicated for developments of high
capabilities as well as to reduce the network dependency on the power THz transmitters, highly sensitive receivers, and adap-
ground stations [105]. Efficient ISLs will allow future space tive antenna arrays, many THz communication opportunities
missions to be autonomous space systems. Radio frequency can be explored within the NGSO satellite deployments [112].
(RF) and optical links are the two primary communication On the other hand, free space optical (FSO) communication
media for an ISL. RF has the advantage of mature technology, links have the advantage of higher data rates, smaller size, and
and does not require a tight acquisition and tracking function- lower power, but needs more complex acquisition and tracking
alities but it suffers from interference and provide low data functionalities [113]. Two additional advantages can be added
rate compared to optical media. The concept of using RF ISLs for laser-based FSO which are the low probability of intercept
has been around for about 30 years [106], [107]. Mororola’s and intrinsic high-gain due to narrow-beam nature of laser
Iridium system is the first commercial satellite system to use beams. For satellite communication, FSO links have already
RF ISLs, showing that they are practical on a large network been experimented by the ESA and Japan Aerospace Ex-
of LEO satellites. Besides, many other Earth observation ploration Agency (JAXA) for satellite-to-satellite link within
missions have used the RF ISLs as a communication way the SILEX research program (Semiconductor Inter-Satellite
between different satellites [108], [109]. Laser Experiment) [114]. In [115], [116], ground stations have
In this context, Terahertz (THz) band communications are been developed for optical space-to-ground links to investigate
anticipated to support a wide variety of ISLs [110], such as the data transmission through the atmosphere. Whereas, an optical
satellite cluster networks and inter-satellite backbone networks link between an aircraft and a GSO satellite was established
[111]. Unlike ground THz communications that suffer from and used to demonstrate a communication link in strongly
short distance transmission limitations due to the atmosphere turbulent and dynamic environment in [117]. Reference [118]

11
has considered introducing coherent modulation techniques to eters. Nevertheless, the typical satellite channel impairments,
achieve higher data rate links connecting LEO satellites. such as variable propagation delay, high Doppler shift, high
FSO technology is currently gaining momentum not only non-linear degradation, impose designing challenges on the
in experiments and demonstrations but also for commercial physical layer to support NR operations. Satellite commu-
purposes in the context of connecting space missions. For nications community is currently investigating alternatives to
instance, the European data relay system (EDRS) project facilitate the integration of NTN into the 5G ecosystem. In this
utilizes optical inter-satellite link for data relay systems over direction, ESA is currently running a research project for 5G
multi-orbit satellites [119]. To react to this reality, the con- enabled ground segment technologies over the air [129], which
sultative committee for space data systems (CCSDS) has is devoted to investigate the necessary modifications in the
defined recently new specifications to deal with coding and 5G-NR standard to enable the direct radio access of terrestrial
synchronization of high photon efficiency links [120]. CCSDS communication networks via satellite. Indeed, direct access
is also targeting the coding and synchronization layer of a from legacy user terminals is constrained by the low-power
waveform supporting optical LEO direct-to-Earth links and wide-area network technologies. Similarly, the joint project of
which will rely on optical on-off keying (O3K) providing 5G Space Communications Lab [130] aims at implementing a
channel data rates from few Mbps up to 10 Gbps [121]. space communications and control emulation platform for the
From what precede, it is obvious that the evolution of FSO next-generation of space applications including the evaluation
technology is very similar to the fiber optics a decade earlier of different small satellite formation control and cooperation
where the latter was based on single-mode transmission and di- configurations for NTN-5G networks.
rect detection [122]. More interestingly, introducing quantum Additionally, new air interface waveforms and numerologies
cryptography, or quantum key distribution (QKD), to satellite are being analyzed in [131] within the ongoing activities and
systems for offering highly secure applications is also giving studies of 3GPP related to the feasibility and standardization
momentum to FSO links [123]. Accordingly, for future space- of necessary adaptations for the 5G NR to support integrated-
based FSO research topics, it will be interesting to investigate satellite-terrestrial networks with LEO satellites. Reference
recent technologies adopted in state-of-the-art fiber optics as [132] studies and analyzes the random access procedures over
coherent modulation formats, multiplexing schemes, coherent NTN-based 5G systems and the challenges imposed by the in-
receiver techniques and advanced digital signal processing at creased signal propagation delay. The adaptability of candidate
receiver and transmitter, especially, for ground-to-space and waveforms under satellite channel impairments is evaluated
space-to-ground links where the propagation environment is in [133]. The impact of the satellite channel characteristics
challenging mainly due to the presence of the atmosphere. In on the physical and medium access control layers in terms
short, the adoption of such advanced techniques can pave the of transmitted waveforms is assessed in [134], particularly
way to new types of architectures and services, which probably random access, timing advance, and hybrid automatic repeat
will lead to new satellite communication paradigms. request in the context of satellite-based NR networks. In
4) Waveform Design: Waveform design is a critical and [135], the feasibility of direct broadband access from NGSO
fundamental aspect in defining the wireless communication systems to low gain handheld user equipment is studied in
standards [124]. Current satellite communications have been the millimeter wave (mmWave) range, from a regulatory,
standardized according to Digital Video Broadcasting-Satellite user equipment characteristics, space segment, link budget
(DVB-S) for both physical and link layers in GSO and NGSO and system point of view. The aforementioned works have
systems. Specifically, the second generation DVB-S2 and its identified major challenges in terms of waveform design that
extensions DVB-S2X [125] are widely implemented due to require more research efforts to realize NGSO integration with
its ability to adapt to changing propagation conditions. DVB- 5G-NR standards.
S2(X) includes a high number of modulation and coding 5) Access Design and Multiplexing: One of the most im-
schemes from which the system can select the most suitable portant enablers of vigorous NGSO satellite communications
one based on the link Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Opti- is the efficiency of radio access schemes. Many access so-
mal waveform design for improved transmission efficiency lutions for heterogeneous terminals with stationary and non-
has been investigated within DVB compliant scenarios for stationary channel characteristics have been developed in the
GSO systems [126]. In particular, the problem of inter-beam framework of terrestrial networks [136]. Herein, radio access
interference management has received significant attention, design for on ground and airborne users is more complicated
particularly for techniques implemented at the transmitter side and challenging compared to the terrestrial case due to the
(i.e. gateway). The reader is referred to [127] for a detailed different relative motion of those users with respect to satellite
discussion of precoding schemes supported by DVB-S2(X). nodes, uneven transmit powers, link availability, and variable
However, NGSO systems have emerged with a focus on QoS profiles [137]. Accordingly, to serve a large number of
particular promising 5G satellite use cases and associated heterogeneous users simultaneously and provide ubiquitous
requirements such as latency-sensitive applications [128]. The and flexible connectivity solutions, it is critical to devise
key driving factors proposed by the research community to innovative and efficient techniques that provide fair radio
meet the heterogeneous requirements of 5G-NR are new can- access and scheduling to the users in order to avoid collisions,
didate waveforms for flexibly rendering the waveform param- interference, and imbalanced capacity distribution [138].

12
 Prior works on access techniques and multiplexing protocols
ISL ISL
have considered the large number of satellites to be deployed GSO Layer
as a satellite sensor network, and then applied the concept
of terrestrial wireless mesh networks to satellite nodes and IOL IOL IOL NGSO Layer
space missions. For instance, the work in [25] has conducted ISL
a survey on the classical multiple access protocols highlight-
ing their benefits and pitfalls from efficiency and scalability ISL
NGSO
perspectives. Authors in [25] have also proposed two access Operators

schemes for a distributed network of small satellites; namely, Space

(1) a modified carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) scheme Missions

that establishes communication only when it is required,

and (2) hybrid time division multiple access (TDMA)/code
division multiple access (CDMA) protocol where multiple
satellites from different clusters utilize same time slot using
different codes. Furthermore, an efficient transmission scheme 0
Internet
for flexible multiple access to several small LEO satellites has Ground
station Network Control
been proposed in [139] based on a QoS-aware scheduler. Center (NCC) Ground Layer

Motivating by the fact that a user terminal can see multiple

NGSO satellites at the same time, there is an opportunity to
Fig. 5. General schematic diagram of a multi-layer space information network.
combine the signals from multiple satellites for improving the
aggregated data rate, beam load balancing, and improving the
robustness of the satellite link exploiting path diversity. In ad- In brief, a continuous and ubiquitous wireless coverage
dition to the possibility of combining multiple satellite links at can be attained via NGSO satellites, which can be seen as
the physical layer using, for example non-orthogonal multiple a cost-effective solution for reliable coverage across different
access (NOMA) technique, the concept of carrier aggregation geographies. However, NGSO network scalability requires
(CA) can be also applied [140], [141] at high layers. CA is more research and development in the technologies related to
a well-developed technique in Long Term Evolution-Advance physical and radio link layers in order to reap the benefits of
(LTE-A) standard for terrestrial networks and has succeed to the improved connectivity offered by the low orbit satellites.
significantly boost the performance through maximizing the In particular, dynamic beamforming through active antenna
spectrum utilization and satisfying the extremely high through- arrays can improve link performance, while FSO communica-
put requirements in certain circumstances [142]. Besides, in tion and THz bands are envisioned for ISLs to achieve high
the context of NTN networks to extend the coverage of uplink data rates on the order of Terabits per second. Besides, the
transmissions performed by users towards NGSO satellites, design of waveform is also critical in this context as it impacts
the supplementary uplink technique [143] can be utilized here the transmission efficiency. Further, multiple access schemes
to enhance user experience. Supplementary uplink and dual such as NOMA can be incorporated in the NGSO multi-beam
connectivity can also be used for reducing latency or providing satellite architecture to grant radio access to the foreseeable
higher uplink data rates in power-limited situations [144]. large number of users.
Furthermore, NOMA scheme can be incorporated in the
NGSO multi-beam satellite architecture to design efficient B. Networking Aspects
transmission strategies that aim at increasing radio access The challenge inflected by the ever-growing NGSO systems
flexibility and capacity [145]. Specifically, NOMA is more and mega-constellations that are launched for various space
suitable for such multi-layer (multi-orbit) systems, where the applications is the necessity for a real-time uninterrupted con-
wide patterns of spatial distributions of different users along nectivity, which is fairly infeasible in current satellite system
with the various received power levels that will cause the infrastructure due to the magnitude and cost of the needed
Near-Far Effect required for efficient NOMA. Additionally, gateway network on ground. Thereby, there is a demand
utilizing MIMO beamforming and active antenna concepts for the development of new space network infrastructures to
for the massive connectivity and seamless accessibility in supplement and extend the satellite communication systems
NGSO systems will require employing multi-user detection [147], [148]. To this end, satellites can be deployed as a space
approaches such as successive interference cancellation (SIC) information network (SIN) using ISLs and inter-orbit links
and joint processing of signal copies received by multiple (IOLs) as illustrated in Fig. 5. Establishing SIN architectures
NGSO satellites [146]. Thereby, granting access for a massive is more economically efficient and more suitable for the
number of diversified users to the NGSO satellites while taking heterogeneous integrated satellite communications. SINs can
into account the relative motion among different entities, fulfill the increasing complexity of application requirements,
variable QoS requirements, differential delays, and Doppler and can also eliminate the use of the excessive number
effects are nontrivial tasks and needs more developments and of gateways. This architecture is particularly favorable for
considerations. the areas where acquiring gateway sites is difficult [149].

13
However, this expansion leads to numerous theoretical and this setup along with designing efficient routing mechanisms
technical challenges considering the restricted spectrum, en- that consider the unique features of the multi-layered multi-
ergy, and orbits resources. Therefore, the fundamental issues orbit SINs. In this configuration, several challenges imposed at
for nurturing the development of SINs need to be explored the satellite network level related to dense satellite distribution,
and adequately addressed. transmission delays, QoS priorities, uneven distribution of data
1) Space Information Networks: SINs are integrated net- flows, and the dynamic change of the network’s topological
works based on different space platforms including GSO and structure. Designing efficient in-space backhauling protocols
NGSO satellites, and airships on high altitude platform stations starts from evaluating the infrastructure parameters such as
(HAPS) to provision real-time communications, massive data topology variation, bandwidth, link delay, in addition to traffic
transmission and processing, and systematized information generation profiles of the heterogeneous user services/classes
services [150]. Furthermore, SINs enable communication and and computational and storage capabilities of the nodes.
cooperation between satellites for traffic routing, throughput Furthermore, utilizing NGSO systems can be extended
maximization, latency minimization, and seamless coverage beyond the rural and remote areas to include the urban areas
[151]. Similarly, SINs can provide coordination and aware- where satellites can provide an alternative backhaul solution.
ness of the operational characteristics about each counterpart In 5G systems, the backhaul demands inherent in networks
system, and thus, achieve a successful coexistence between with large numbers of small cells can be accommodated via
different satellites without imposing detrimental interference NGSO satellite networks to be used as a single centralized
to their concurrent transmissions [152]. However, the expected backhaul for traffic offloading, edge processing, and resource
better performance of space-based networks will be achieved sharing [159]. In fact, satellite-based backhaul communication
at the cost of higher complexity that is essential for load can be seen on the horizon within the standardization efforts in
balancing between satellite links and for finding paths with 3GPP associated with identifying the technical requirements
the shortest end-to-end propagation delay. and solutions to support NR-NTNs [6]. In this context, back-
Unlike terrestrial networks, SINs consist of various, inde- haul connection solutions of terrestrial 3GPP-based infras-
pendent, and complex components that are designed for dif- tructure have been investigated in [160] to enable ubiquitous
ferent purposes. The high complexity and variety of satellites 5G coverage with integration of satellite infrastructure of the
along with their diverse portfolio of constellations and the existing satellite network operators. In this setup, performance
high-speed mobility of NGSO with respect to the Earth’s of a terrestrial-satellite system can be improved by considering
surface impose exceptional technical challenges on the system dynamically varying backhaul capacity determined by the
design and communication environment. To this end, EDRS satellite selection and backhaul capacity optimization [161].
project of ESA is dedicated to the development and imple- 3) Software-defined Networking: In the context of satellite
mentation of data relay satellites that are placed in GSO orbit communications, researchers have already developed several
to relay information to and from NGSO satellites, spacecraft, routing algorithms under the satellite network constraints.
and fixed ground stations that otherwise are not able to Traditional routing schemes have been used in distributed
permanently transmit/receive data [153]. Similarly, NASA has and centralized systems depending on the network topology
also invested in this concept by developing the so-called and mission requirements. These approaches require each
space mobile network (SMN) to be an analogous architectural satellite to store the entire network topology along with the
framework for near Earth space applications [154]. In parallel, routing tables [25], but that is difficult in complex SINs and
some works in the literature consider connecting lower orbit consumes more power and bandwidth. In parallel, it has been
satellites with other higher orbit ones for routing data packets extensively concluded that an effective solution is given by
and reducing the dependency on the ground stations. For the well-known paradigm software-defined networking (SDN)
instance, the concept of system of systems was introduced [162]. SDN paradigm enables dynamic, programmatically
in [155] to study the availability and capacity of a simplified efficient network configuration in order to improve network
scenario consists of a few multi-orbit satellites. In [156], an performance, management, and monitoring. Therefore, SDN
architecture has been proposed based on fog environment has a tremendous potential to succeed in SINs owing to its
via considering the underutilized moving satellites as mobile capability to implement a reactive scheme for end-to-end
fog nodes to provide computing, storage and communication traffic engineering development across both terrestrial and
services for users in satellite coverage areas. satellite segments.
2) In-space Backhauling: The deployment of SIN requires In the literature, prior works in [163] and [164] have
developing more sophisticated traffic distribution schemes to proposed to distribute an SDN controller on the ground, while
manage the growing number of satellite nodes and users to some other works have considered the placement of the SDN
achieve network congestion control, resource utility maxi- controller on GSO satellites [165]. As intermediate solution,
mization, energy efficiency, and resilience structures [157]. an SDN-based infrastructure for multi-layered space terres-
Interestingly, the aforementioned satellite advancements allow trial integrated networks is introduced in [166] to distribute
on-board regeneration and Layer 3 routing that render satellites the SDN controller entities among GSO satellites, terrestrial
to active network elements rather than simple bent-pipe relays infrastructure, and HAPS, which is still seen as a terrestrial-
[158]. In particular, in-space backhauling is a crucial part in dependent SDN network. Furthermore, it has been emphasised

14
in [167] that there is a lack of SDN-based architecture solution
specifically designed for small satellites, where all the prior Space
0
Segment
works mainly focus on the traditional LEO, MEO and GSO
satellites. Authors in [167] have presented a detailed SDN
structure adapted to the Internet of space things and small User Links Feeder Link

satellites but their implementation is more applicable for mon-

itoring and Internet provisioning for remote areas, which make Ground
Station
the developed platform terrestrial-dependent. Thereby, an ef- Network
ficient SDN-based architecture for multi-layer SINs requires Management
Centre (NMC)
more developments to achieve a flexible framework capable
Ground Network
of facing the dynamicity of the nodes and the heterogeneity
of the traffic.
4) Network Slicing: NGSO networks are expected to grow
largely in size and complexity due to the wide adoption of Communication Demands
Link Status

services and users. In addition, the combination of terres- Network Control

Centre (NCC)
trial and satellite networks has introduced new dimensions
of network heterogeneity and dynamicity. Hence, network
management is a critical challenge to provide NGSO satellite Fig. 6. Diagram of a satellite communication system architecture.
communication services in a more flexible, agile, and cost ef-
fective manner. Therefore, embracing network slicing concept
through adopting network virtualization and softwarization tructures to complement and expand the satellite commu-
technologies can significantly increase the degrees of freedom nication systems has several advantages for both terrestrial
in the network management process [168]. Network slicing is networks and NTNs, which will improve communication
envisioned as a promising design approach within the multi- and cooperation between different network nodes for traffic
layer NGSO network structure owing to its ability of enabling routing, throughput maximization, latency minimization, etc.
optimal support for wide-reaching heterogeneous services that However, some prospects in this evolving part are still rather
share the same radio access network. Network slicing is overlooked and require more research efforts for integrating
made possible thanks to SDN and network function virtualiza- NGSO satellites with the global communication infrastructure.
tion (NFV) technologies [169]. With SDN, networks can be Specifically, multi-orbit SINs can improve organization and
dynamically programmed through centralized control points, operation of all network entities while providing in-space
while NFV enables cost-efficient deployment and runtime backhauling for diverse services and applications. Likewise,
of network functions (e.g. computing, storage) as software SND is another promising technology that has the features
only [170]. Through this paradigm, satellite networks can be of flexibility, programmability, and effective control, which
seamlessly integrated with other heterogeneous networks in a can improve network resource utilization, simplify network
5G ecosystem. management, reduce operating cost, and boost the evolution
Network slicing enables running multiple logical networks and innovation. Moreover, the combination of network slicing
as independent tasks on a common physical infrastructure, technology and SINs can offer autonomous network resource
where each network slice represents an independent virtualized allocation and flexible management mechanisms.
end-to-end network and allows operators to perform multiple
C. System and Architectural Aspects
functions based on different architectures [171]. However, ap-
plying the network slicing paradigm to NGSO satellites is not a Satellite systems are very complex cyber-physical systems,
straightforward task and provokes a number of challenges. For which are challenging to operate due to the immense physical
instance, assigning dedicated spectrum resources to individual distance with the asset. Traditionally, GSO satellites can be
slices can diminish the multiplexing gains due the scarcity of operated individually, since each asset occupies a specific
radio spectrum [172]. Besides, satellite service providers will orbital slot and provides service over a specific coverage area.
need to carefully plan and apply different technologies to serve The operation is usually split between two main functions
diverse users with considering radio access heterogeneity and NMC and NCC [49], as presented in Fig. 6. The two types of
spatial diversity. Network slicing works efficiently when more operations are tightly linked and there are strict coordination
information can be provided by the infrastructure about the procedures between the two, especially when the communi-
shared parts to the network slice but exposing such information cation payload has to be reconfigured (e.g., carrier switching,
creates new potential security vulnerabilities between infras- power control, etc.). Furthermore, the relevant hardware and
tructure providers and their partners. In other words, network software for NMC and NCC are usually replicated over
slicing is still at an early stage of its application into 5G multiple geographically distanced sites on the globe to avoid
systems and requires novel algorithms and solutions to involve single points of failure on the ground.
the NGSO systems. For NGSO systems, it is apparent that these operations
Concisely, the development of new space network infras- become even more involved for two main reasons: a) a

15
large number of gateways is required, b) there are multiple resource allocation strategies with respect to power, band-
satellites that have to be jointly operated/configured so that width, time interval, beam and antenna (to exploit spatial
they optimize the performance of the communication service diversity), needs to be done, cf. [179]. Nevertheless, the
as the constellation rotates. The former reason is currently demand satisfaction is much more challenging with NGSO
a large capital expenditures (CAPEX) for the deployment compared to GSO satellites because of less available re-
of mega-constellations, which can be partially mitigated by sources due to a much smaller payload [180], [181]. Also,
deploying ISLs for routing communication data in space [173]. the complexity requirements of the employed algorithms are
The latter reason is mainly driven by the relative motion much more strict with NGSO satellites, since the optimization
between the constellation and user terminals, and unbalance parameters quickly become outdated. These requirements may
of data traffic/demand depending on the geographical location even pose a burden for the feasibility of optimization, since
of the users, which requires the constant reconfiguration of the resource management problems are often non-convex and
satellites in terms of resource allocation [174]. have many optimization parameters, which require iterative
The control and operation mechanisms are fundamental convexification methods to obtain reasonably good solutions.
issues for the NGSO satellites. These issues can be settled by Thus, it might be useful to reduce the number of parameters
operating NGSO system in either centralized or decentralized or apply low-complexity metaheuristics and machine learning
manners [175]. In centralized architectures [176], high efficient methods [182].
network management can be achieved but that comes at the
Resource management is significantly affected by the em-
expense of incurring a non-negligible complexity and an in-
ployed satellite coverage scheme [183]. One of the two popular
creased operating expenditures (OPEX). Specifically, network
coverage schemes can be adopted by NGSO systems: (i)
controllers in the centralized architectures typically execute in
spot beam coverage and (ii) hybrid wide-spot beam coverage
servers located at a terrestrial network. The control channels
[184]. In a spot beam coverage scheme, each satellite provides
between a controller and each node (satellite or ground station)
multiple spot beams to offer coverage over its service area,
will require additional bandwidth resources in addition to the
where their footprint on Earth’s surface moves along with the
resource allocation burden. On the other hand, in decentralized
satellite trajectory. This scheme is simple but the handover
architectures, each NGSO satellite independently regulates its
between beams are more frequent because the coverage area
operating parameters such as power allocation and topology
of a single spot beam is rather small. On the other hand,
management [177]. This architecture requires the development
in hybrid wide-spot beam scheme each satellite provides a
of energy-efficient and delay-sensitive distributed algorithms
wide beam for the whole service area and several steering
that are able to run in the on-board units of satellites such that
beams for users employing digital beamforming techniques.
the amount of messages that need to be exchanged among
The spot beams are always steered to the users, and thus,
satellites and their neighbors is limited. However, global
the provided footprint is nearly fixed during the movement of
optimal control and operation policies are difficult to achieve
satellite. In this scheme, handover occurs only between the
in this decentralized manner.
wide beams of adjacent satellites, such that the number of
Additionally, the high heterogeneity and complexity of
handover operations substantially decreases due to much larger
NGSO systems alongside with the high-speed mobility with
beamwidth. Another approach suggested in [185] involves
respect to the Earth’s surface inflict multiple system and archi-
joint optimization of the available resources, number of beams
tectural challenges that need to be carefully addressed [178].
and beam width. Through this, it is possible to take into
Particularly, NGSO systems have to confront the interference
account the desired handover frequency as well as demand
issues due to the coexistence with other satellite systems and
satisfaction per beam.
terrestrial networks, which requires developing efficient inter-
ference coordination/mitigation techniques. Likewise, the new The overlapping coverage of multiple NGSO satellites,
features of NGSO satellites with their heterogeneous resources especially if they belong to different orbital planes, poses
are exacerbating the resource management challenges. Thus, a challenge for the resource allocation, as explained before,
resources management strategies that are cognizant of the since asynchronous satellites can attempt to satisfy the same
topographies of different satellite systems are indispensable demand, thus heavily interfering with each other and wasting
in such dynamic propagation environments. In addition, the the resources [19]. To avoid such scenarios, multiple adjacent
integration of NGSO satellite systems into Internet infras- NGSO satellite may need to be jointly optimized, which
tructures comes with serious security threats due to the large dramatically increases the complexity of the optimization.
constellations that will include hundreds or even thousands of Besides, the spectrum allocated to the applications served by
satellites providing direct connectivity. Thus, the essential sys- NGSO systems is neither constant nor fully dedicated during
tem requirements to achieve smooth and reliable NGSO com- the service interval. Specifically, the spectrum resource blocks
munications are discussed in this subsection including resource are allocated based on the available spectrum resources, the
optimization, interference management, spectrum sharing, and speed requirement, and the priority of the service and user.
security issues. The traditional frequency reuse schemes may not be feasible in
1) Resources Management and Optimization: In order to some scenarios due to the fast handover between the adjacent
satisfy the growing traffic demand a thorough design of the beams or even adjacent satellites [186].

16
 determination are proposed in [190] to minimize the interfer-
GSO Satellite ence in Ka band caused by an NGSO satellite towards a GSO
Interfering link system. The impact of NGSO-NGSO co-channel interference
on the achievable throughput for NGSO constellations is stud-
ied in [191]. Band splitting interference mitigation techniques
are also investigated in [191] with considering the Ka and V
bands. Accordingly, the highly heterogeneous NGSO constel-
NGSO Satellites lation properties with the interference interactions need to be
thoroughly analyzed for satellite deployments over different
bands and constellations.
Most of abovementioned works analyze uplink and down-
link scenarios where coverage areas of NGSO and GSO
satellites overlap. However, the interference between ISLs
needs more investigation, which is a serious problem in the
NGSO networks as it may occur not only in the overlap of
coverage areas but also wherever inter-satellite communica-
tions take place. This interference scenario is more challenging
NGSO coverage and complex to analysis because of the relative motions and
constellation dynamics. In [192], the impact of the interference
GSO coverage generated by inter-satellite links of a LEO constellation is
Fig. 7. Aggregated interference scenario involving a GSO and multiple NGSO studied over both GSO satellites and ground stations that are
satellites. part of the GSO satellite network. An interference suppression
scheme is proposed in [193] based on a code-aided technique
in the global navigation satellite system ISLs. Alternatively,
2) Interference Management: Interference analysis of the optical ISLs have the advantage in this regards over the RF
emerging NGSO constellations should take into consideration ISLs due to their robustness against interference and signal
the effect of the aggregated interference due to utilizing a jamming.
large number of multi-beam satellites and applying frequency 3) Spectrum Sharing: The concept of mega-constellation
reuse techniques [187]. For example, Fig. 7 shows an in- brings about spectrum sharing challenges between NGSO and
terference scenario where multiple satellites having multi- GSO systems. These mega-constellation satellites will operate
beam and multi-carrier per beam. Despite the several prior at the same frequencies that are currently used by GSO satel-
works on developing interference mitigation techniques for lites including the Ka and Ku bands, which has raised some
satellite systems, the high heterogeneity and ambiguity about serious concerns among GSO satellite operators. Therefore,
the parameters of the emerging deployments make the effec- coordination and awareness of the operational characteristics
tiveness of these traditional mitigation techniques question- about each counterpart system is essential in order to achieve
able when applied to NGSO. Moreover, most of the prior a successful spectrum sharing between different satellites.
works focus mainly on the inter-system interference between Spectrum sharing concept has received a tremendous research
GSO and NGSO, while the serious issue of NGSO-NGSO attention to combat the spectrum scarcity issue in wireless
interference was recently addressed only in [188]–[191]. The communication networks [194]. Basically, a typical spectrum
downlink interference between LEO system and GSO systems sharing scheme consists of a primary system with the privilege
is analysed in [188] to evaluate the inter-satellite spectrum to use its licensed spectrum and a secondary system that has a
coexistence performance. The conclusions of [188] indicate lower priority and may utilize the spectrum but without caus-
that the existing spectrum regulations may be insufficient to ing any detrimental interference to the primary transmissions.
ensure GSO protection from NGSO interference. Furthermore, Thereby, NGSO systems may employ this concept and exploit
[188] evaluates three simple interference mitigation strategies: the spectrum allocated to GSO satellites or terrestrial networks
(i) look-aside or pointing to another LEO satellite within by using underlay, overlay and interweave spectrum sharing
the visible area, (ii) band-splitting (which goes against the techniques.
maximization of the spectral efficiency), and (iii) exclusion In the interweave scheme, NGSO systems operate in a
zone or avoid operation in areas where the interference is sensing-transmitting fashion, i.e. secondary users first sense
intolerable. the licensed spectrum and when it is not occupied the
The authors of [189] have analyzed the coexistence of GSO secondary users utilize this spectrum for data transmission
and LEO constellations in Ka band with focusing on the [195]. Whereas, in the underlay model, the transmit power
exclusion angle strategy (i.e. LEO is not allowed to transmit of secondary NGSO systems is strictly constrained to satisfy
in this angle) to assess the reduction in the in-line downlink the interference threshold of the primary GSO systems [196],
interference from LEO to GSO systems. Similarly, a power [197]. On the contrary, in the overlay scheme, the secondary
control mechanism and a methodology for inter-site distance NGSO system assist the primary transmissions through coop-

17
erative relaying techniques in exchange for spectrum access quality of service for the legitimate users. NGSO satellites
without posing stringent transmit power restrictions [198]. can be particularly susceptible to this kind of attacks due to
Integration of these spectrum sharing paradigms into NGSO rather limited computational power, such that the satellite can
communications can provide significant benefits in terms of be easily overloaded with processing tasks and may not be
spectral efficiency and transmission reliability [199]. able to provide the requested service within the short visibility
Some recent works have considered multiple spectrum window.
sharing scenarios to wisely share spectrum resources within Security of satellite communication is traditionally provi-
the coexistence of the multi-beam GSO-NGSO systems. For sioned through cryptography-based techniques on the upper
instance, a database-based operation is foreseen a possible layers. The drawback of these techniques is a high computa-
approach can achieve sort of coordination between mixed tional complexity [208]. Thus, more efficient and sophisticated
satellite systems [200]. Additionally, a flexible spectrum shar- methods from the areas of quantum key distribution (QKD),
ing approach is proposed in [201] for a scenario where block-chain technology (BCT), and physical layer security
multiple LEO ground users are located within the coverage of have been proposed [209]–[212]. QKD provides means to
a GSO satellite. In this model, the GSO satellite is considered detect, if the transmission has been eavesdropped or modified.
as the primary system and the LEO satellites are the secondary For this, the quantum coherence or entanglement is employed,
system. This approach aims at optimising the throughput which is based on a unique connection between the transmitter
of LEO satellites under the premise that the QoS of GSO and the receiver. The drawback of this scheme is, however,
satellite is guaranteed. Further, a spectrum-sharing framework the need to exchange the keys, which may need time, since
is designed in [202] where LEO system can work concurrently entangled particles need to be produced and sent. Hence, this
with GSO systems in the interference region by accessing approach may not always be suitable for NGSO and especially
the shared spectrum in both overlay and underlay modes. LEO satellites due to the fast passage of the satellite.
In [203], the flexibility of LEO beam hopping satellites is
utilized in a spectrum sharing scenario where an LEO satellite The communications between ground stations and NGSO
constellation system is considered as a secondary system to satellite constellations require decentralized tracking and mon-
share the spectrum resources of a GSO satellite. itoring of active and inactive space assets. In addition, it
4) Secure Communications: Satellite communications typ- requires assessing the space environment through a network
ically rely on ground stations for securing the transmissions, of multi and heterogeneous of satellite nodes in different
which pushed the majority of security research efforts to focus orbits. In this respective, BCT can be utilized for securing
mainly on the data links between satellites and the ground satellites communications and authenticating space transac-
stations, i.e., uplink and downlink [204]. However, the steadily tions between the NGSO constellations and ground stations
growing deployment of the space-based networks shows that [212]. The key feature of BCT is to authenticate satellite’s
there will be also a big security risk in the data communication identity, ground station’s identity, or communication pattern
between satellites and even the internal structure of satellites. validity through a history record of changes such as config-
These security issues cannot be ignored and they deserve more uration and re-configuration history of the satellite and space
attention. Additionally, the complex structure of the space- information network. Therefore, BCT can be beneficial to
based wireless network requires various security modeling and protect satellite communication against the denial-of-service
analysis for the space-based NGSO networks in combination (DoS) and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and insider
with certain application scenarios. attacks. Although, BCT challenges should be scrutinized as
Proper security mechanisms are essential for NGSO com- well, such as the BCT database storage and distribution for
munication systems because they are susceptible to security all satellite nodes in a network.
threats such as eavesdropping, jamming, and spoofing. For On the other hand, physical layer security is known to be
instance, any sufficiently well-equipped adversary can send an effective approach to achieve reasonable levels of security
spurious commands to the satellite and gain full access to satel- without imposing additional computational complexity for data
lites as well as data, enabling them to cause serious damage. encryption/decryption [213]. This technique is very popular in
In addition to the blind jamming [205], intelligent jamming the terrestrial domain, where the spatial filters are designed
exploiting the communication protocols can be used [206]. In with respect not only to the user demands, but also to
this context, applications of satellite-aided massive uncoordi- the secrecy against an eavesdropper with partially known or
nated access are very vulnerable to such intelligent jamming unknown location. However, the satellite-terrestrial commu-
due to the reduced coordination, i.e. increased uncertainty nication link usually does not have enough spatial diversity
related to the structure of the received signal. Another example to distinguish between the intended users and eavesdroppers.
for potential malicious activity that requires additional security Hence, this method applied to satellite communications is
measures is related to denial-of-service attacks, which can still in its infancy, cf. [214]. Interestingly, the joint precoding
be conducted by adversaries via sending a large number of over multiple NGSO satellites with overlapping coverage areas
spurious messages to the satellite [207]. Thus, satellites under may solve this issue in some cases, since the spatial diversity
this attack will spend significant computational processing associated with the antennas of the adjacent satellites can be
power and time to the spurious messages, which degrades the exploited to increase the secrecy.

18
 IV. NGSO D EPLOYMENT C HALLENGES
Notwithstanding the growing interest in NGSO satellites
Regulatory
due to their essential feature of providing high-speed pervasive Issues
connectivity for a wide variety of use cases and applications,
there are still many daunting challenges in the NGSO satellite Coexistence
User
evolution to be addressed in order to achieve high quality Equipment
with GSO/
communications [178]. In this context, the 3GPP has pointed NGSO
out the main challenges related to the mobility and orbital
NGSO
height of the satellite in Release 16 [6]. Afterwards, Release
Challenges
17 establishes basic mechanisms to manage the identified chal-
lenges in Release 16 and provides a first set of specifications to
Operational Constellation
support NTNs in complementing the 5G system along with the
Challenges Design
terrestrial networks. Release 17 builds on previous releases (15
[7] and 16) with the aim of improving 5G System performance,
where NTN channel models and necessary adaptations to System
Control
support NTN were recognized. The key difference among
these potential solutions is related to which functionalities are
implemented on-board satellites. More specifically, satellites
can act either as relay nodes between 5G user equipment (5G- Fig. 8. NGSO satellites deployment challenges.
UE), or as 5G access points (5G-gNodeB) to extend 5G radio
access network (5G-RAN) coverage, or as backbone/backhaul
only result from the enormous number of operating satellites
supports. Besides, the additional study in [215] investigates
but also from the expected high heterogeneity of the NGSO
the possible employment of satellite networks as active nodes
systems [217]. Therefore, it is imperative to scrutinize the
in the 5G access operations. However, NTN integration is
interference interactions between different GSO and NGSO
also leading to challenges associated with the deploying and
systems to ensure consistent hybrid deployment landscape
adapting the satellite networks to the technologies that are
[218].
originally designed for terrestrial networks [216].
The recent growing activities concerning the use of NGSO
Beyond the NTN involvement and from NGSO deployment
satellite constellations have propelled the regulatory environ-
standpoints, this section presents several key challenges (see
ment towards adapting and extending their rules to ensure a
Fig. 8) including satellite constellation and architecture de-
safe and efficient deployment of NGSO operations. Interna-
signs, coexistence with GSO and other NGSO systems in terms
tional regulators have the difficult task to establish a fair and
of spectrum access and regulatory issues, system operational
transparent competitive framework for all satellite broadband
issues, and user equipment requirements. In the following, the
players while prioritising the socioeconomic growth. Specif-
related critical challenges of NGSO systems deployment and
ically, during the world radio communications conference
integration are discussed with highlighting the most relevant
in 2015 (WRC-15) [219], different national delegates have
solutions.
expressed their concerns on the increasing number of requests
A. Regulatory and coexistence issues submitted for NGSO satellite systems operating in the Fixed-
According to the ITU regulations, the interference inflicted Satellite Service (FSS) subject to the EPFD limits in Article 22
at GSO satellites from NGSO satellite systems shall not de- and to coordination under No. 9.7B of the Radio Regulations
grade GSO satellites performance and shall not claim protec- (RR). Furthermore, the global satellite coalition (GSC) during
tion from GSO systems in the fixed-satellite and broadcasting- WRC-19 has agreed on defining a regulatory framework for
satellite services [10]. Specifically, the effective power flux NGSO satellites to operate in the Q/V bands [220]. They also
density (EPFD) within the frequency bands that are allocated have planned a new agenda item for WRC-23 to further study
to GSO systems and at any point on the Earth’s surface a number of issues including technical considerations related
visible from the GSO satellite orbit shall not exceed the given to space-to-space links, which will be important for global
predefined limits in the ITU regulations. Although NGSO NGSO and hybrid NGSO-GSO networks. Moreover, the ITU
systems have potentials of global coverage and high perfor- vision for the next WRC-23 aims at bring the satellite industry
mance, many of their regulatory rules were coined nearly two forward to work together with governments to ensure a global
decades ago based on the proposed technical characteristics of perspective on connectivity that also addresses national and
NGSO satellites at the time. This is very challenging from a regional requirements.
spectral coexistence viewpoint, and it will require much more At this point, some aspects and scenarios need further
agile systems. Moreover, the deployment of NGSO satellites investigations in this direction, which are enumerated and
is undergoing a significant densification comparing to existing briefly described in the following.
GSO systems, which is leading to unprecedented inter-satellite • NGSO and GSO coexistence: NGSO single-entry power
coexistence challenges. The high interference levels will not flux density (PFD) limits in certain parts of the frequency

19
 NGSO FSS systems have sought after the FCC authority
GSO to modernize the relevant regulations, and consequently,
the FCC has proposed to update certain frequency allo-
cations in the Ka-band, power limits, and service rules to
facilitate these emerging systems [224].
NGSO • Coordination with other NGSO networks: In view of the
NGSO constellation and orbital overcrowding, it is very likely
that large NGSO constellations will cause interference to
other NGSO systems. However, the preliminary interfer-
ence risk analysis carried out in [225] considering both
Ka-band and V-band suggests that the risk is relatively
low, concluding that the need for interference mitigation
might be limited. In case of unacceptable interference
GSO Beam
situations, the mitigation techniques described in Annex
1 of [226] should be considered in order to achieve
Earth satisfactory sharing between different NGSO systems,
although other techniques are not excluded.
It is clear that the efficient use of spectrum is one of the
Fig. 9. Aggregated interference from multiple NGSO systems. most crucial challenges to be met by international satellite
community in order to mitigate the GSO-NGSO interference.
While the NGSO inter-constellation interference is normally
range 10.7-30 GHz are included in Article 22 of the managed by ITU assigning priority based on the ITU filing
RR since 2000, with the main goal to protect GSO date and without deteriorating the quality of service of GSO.
systems operating in the same frequency bands. Later, The ITU regulation related to the NGSO-GSO spectrum shar-
the single-entry PFD limit was found to be not enough ing scenario is summarized in Table IV for the different bands
as the number of NGSO satellites was growing at a rapid of operations [220].
pace. This led to the definition of EPFD that takes into
account the aggregate of the emissions from all NGSO TABLE IV
satellites. An example of multiple NGSO systems causing ITU REGULATIONS FOR NGSO-GSO SPECTRUM SHARING [220].
interference to a GSO receiver is shown in Fig. 9. In this
Band Frequency Range Priority of Operations
direction, a specific software tool has been made available
10.7-10.95 GHz (space-to-Earth) GSO has priority
for operators and regulators to check these limits for Ku 11.2-11.45 GHz (space-to-Earth) over NGSO
specific NGSO satellites [221]. ESA has also launched 12.75-13.25 GHz (Earth-to-space) EPFD limits apply
a separate activity to build its own simulator [222]. 17.8-18.6 GHz (space-to-Earth)
GSO has priority
19.7-20.2 GHz (space-to-Earth)
Moreover, a feasible solution can be proposed through Ka over NGSO
27.5-28.6 GHz (Earth-to-space)
EPFD limits apply
constructing large discrimination angle and exclusion 29.5-30 GHz (Earth-to-space)
zones are typically considered to limit interference with Maximum degradation
37.5-42.5 GHz (space-to-Earth)
of GSO reference links:
GSO communications systems [223]. Q/V 47.2-50.2 GHz (Earth-to-space)
• Single entry (3%)
50.4-51.4 GHz (Earth-to-space)
• NGSO Earth stations operations: The ground infras- • Aggregate (10%)
tructure required to operate a NGSO constellation is
significantly more complex than that of a single GSO
satellite. Therefore, the impact of deploying multiple B. Satellite Constellation Design
NGSO Earth stations distributed over the coverage area Generally, satellite orbit constellation design is a key factor
has to be carefully designed to ensure minimal impact that directly affects the performance of the entire satellite
on other users within the shared spectrum. However, systems. The fundamental constellation parameters include the
from the regulators’ perspective, there is no individual type of orbit, altitude of the orbit, number of orbits, number
licensing of Earth stations because they believe that of satellites in each orbit, and satellite phase factor between
mitigation techniques can be employed by the operators different orbit planes [227]. Several earlier studies have con-
to avoid detrimental interference, for example switching sidered systematic constellation patterns of satellites such as
to alternative frequencies, as elaborated in Federal Com- polar constellations and Walker-Delta patterns [228], which are
munications Commission (FCC) documentations [224]. formulated based on the relative positions of the satellites in
• NGSO FSS user terminals: In general and excluding large the Earth-centered inertial (ECI) frame . Additionally, in [229],
latitudes, GSO FSS user terminals have significant gain the concept of flower constellations has been proposed to put
in high elevation directions with limited gain towards the all satellites in the same 3D trajectory in the Earth-centered
horizon, as the satellite is usually placed above the region Earth-fixed (ECEF) frame. However, these design approaches
of interest. Recently, advocates of a new generation of do not take into consideration the demand characteristics on

20
Earth, which makes them inefficient strategies when bearing in with GSO. The closer a satellite is placed, the faster its
mind the non-uniform and uncertain demand over the globe. movement is perceived from the user terminals on Earth, which
Thus, a more competent strategy would be a staged flexible imposes additional challenges to the user terminal equipment
deployment that adapts the system to the demand evolution because it has to be able to track the satellite movement
and begins covering the regions that have high-anticipated and perform handover from one satellite to another [235].
demands. The complexity of user equipment has an impact on its cost,
Another relevant constellation concept that can be applied to which has been identified as a potential barrier for the com-
NGSO systems was proposed in [230] to constitute reconfig- mercial success of NGSO satellite communication systems.
urable satellite constellations where satellites can change their Previously, broadband LEO networks required expensive user
orbital characteristics to adjust global and regional observation equipment composed of mechanical gimbaled antennas, which
performance. This concept allows establishing flexible con- has narrowed their roll out to only the customers with the high
stellation for different areas of interest. However, introducing purchasing power mainly within the enterprise market [236].
reconfigurability feature to the constellation requires a higher Thus, a new generation of antenna and terminal technology
maneuvering capability of the satellites and more energy was needed that should be affordable, easy to use, and adaptive
consumption and that can be a deterrent factor when multiple to the increasingly complex space ecosystem. In other word,
successive reconfigurations are needed over the life cycle. On inexpensive user equipment capable of tracking LEO satellites
the other hand, a hybrid constellation design is proposed in are a significant component for widespread adoption and
[231] to utilize multiple layers and mixed circular-elliptical crucial to the business success of NGSO systems. In this
orbits, and thus, accommodating the asymmetry and hetero- context, AST & Science initiative envisions building a space-
geneity of the traffic demand. Nonetheless, the optimization based cellular broadband network to be accessible by standard
of adapting the constellation to growing demand areas is a smartphones where users will be able to automatically roam
challenging issue to be addressed in the context of integration from land networks to a space network [237].
an entire hybrid model. Moreover, an integrated framework Conventional parabolic antennas provide good directivity
that accounts for the spatial-temporal traffic distributions and at the expenses of costly mechanical steering [238]. The
optimizes the expected life cycle cost over multiple potential continuous narrow beam pointing is a difficult task, which
scenarios can be an initial plan to circumvent the NGSO has pushed the ground equipment developers to fight in the
constellation design challenges [232]. battle of technical innovations. Electronic beam steering via
Furthermore, traditional global constellation systems are no antenna arrays, which have thus far been mainly used for
longer valid solutions for NGSO systems due to high cost and military applications, are gaining momentum not only for
inflexibility to react to uncertainties resulting from market de- NGSO satellites but also for moving platforms [239]. Low-cost
mands and administrative issues. Therefore, regional coverage and high-performance beam-tracking antennas are considered
constellations are promising solutions for satellite operators as as a game-changer for the satellite community, and several
they will be able to tackle the economic and technical issues in companies are in the final stages of sending their products to
a flexible manner [233]. Regional constellations focus on the the market, e.g., C-ComSat Inc, Kymeta, and ViaSat. Other
coverage over a certain geographical region by using a small antenna manufacturers are developing advanced silicon chips
number of satellites in the system and they can achieve the that can be used as building blocks of smart digital antennas
same or better performance compared to global-coverage con- to create electronic steered multi-beam array antenna [240].
stellations. Regional coverage constellations can also provide For instance, the startup Isotropic Systems has been working
sufficient redundancy with deploying multiple NGSO satellites on developing modular antenna systems that are able to track
in lieu of a single GSO satellite, and thus, operators can more than one satellite at a time with a single antenna, which
hand off traffic to satellites that avoid beam overlapping, and will enable multi-orbit operations and reduce the cost by
therefore interference [234]. However, designing an optimal combining their assets into a single integrated terminal without
regional constellation is a complicated process, which requires needing to duplicate circuity [241].
optimizing the orbital characteristics (e.g., altitude, inclination) Parabolic antennas are difficult to install, to configure and
while considering asymmetric constellation patterns, particu- to operate, but they will still be dominant in governmental
larly for complex time-varying and spatially-varying coverage institutions and big moving platforms like cruise ships [242].
requirements. This topic has not been deeply investigated in Nevertheless, electronically steerable flat panel antennas are an
the literature, and thus, new sophisticated approaches to design imperative ground segment innovation offering a more agile,
optimal constellation patterns are needed to be developed affordable and scalable antenna product capable of performing
and tailored to different orbital characteristics and NGSO the same function as parabolic antennas, opening the door
environments. to the NGSO services to also small user terminals [236].
User mobility is another challenge to be addressed using
C. User Equipment inexpensive antennas. Interestingly, manufacturing a small,
Lowering latency of satellite communications can only be low-cost, flat-panel antenna that can be installed on various
achieved by moving satellites closer to Earth, i.e., the low mobile assets seems feasible with employing the electrically
altitude NGSO satellites offer much lower latency compared steerable flat panel antennas. Moreover, ground equipment

21
can benefit from satellites that have more flexibility and on- from space now holds the power to prevent the astronom-
board processing capabilities that allow creating small and ical community from further exploration of the Universe.
high power-beams over certain regions or assets, and that will To this direction, the international astronomical research
change dramatically how the landscape leverages the assets in community has been active seeking a seat at decision-
the sky to facilitate user connectivity on ground [243]. making tables to mitigate the impact of satellite mega-
Furthermore, the engagement of satellite industry with the constellation on astronomical research.
3GPP to integrate satellite networks into the 5G ecosystem • Space debris: Since the commercialization of NGSO
yields an outcome that handheld users can be served by satellites enters the realm of technical feasibility, many
LEO and GSO in S-band with appropriate satellite beam orbital debris concerns have been raised due to the
layouts [244]. Besides, other users with high transmit and long-term impact that results from placing thousands of
receive antenna gains (e.g., VSAT and proper phased array satellites in orbits and the risk of causing satellite colli-
antenna) can be served by LEO and GSO in both S-band sions. Moreover, the advent large constellations of NGSO
and Ka-band [6]. This also requires 5G functionalities to satellites have been added to the existing debate about
take into account the issues of long propagation delays, large the long-term impact of distributed spacecraft missions
Doppler shifts, and moving cells in NTN, and to improve on orbital debris propagation. Thus, the field of studying
timing and frequency synchronization. The characteristics of the orbital debris is evolving in order to examine the
this user equipment are specified in [6]. In particular, the potential debris mitigation strategies. For example, the
VSAT user equipment consists of a directional antenna (i.e., work in [250] investigates the impact of large satellite
phased array antenna) with circular polarization and 60 cm constellations on the orbital debris environment and uses
equivalent aperture diameter, whereas the handheld user has OneWeb, SpaceX, and Boeing proposals as case studies.
an omnidirectional antenna element (e.g., dipole antenna) with Authors in [251] study retrieving and relocating large
linear polarization [245]. debris for placement into the “graveyard” orbit above
the geostationary regime as a way to mitigate orbital
D. Operational Issues
debris congestion. This work derives an analytical deorbit
Other NGSO operational challenges/concerns are raised by solution based on Lyapunov control theory combined
the astronomy community as some rough estimates suggest with the calculus of variations. Another cost-effective
there could be more than 50,000 satellites in total added to way to diminish satellite debris has proposed to use a
Earth orbits in the near future, which will make our planet high power pulsed laser system on the Earth to make
blanketed with satellites. Therefore, some experts are alarmed plasma jets on the objects, slowing them slightly, and
by the plans of mega-constellation companies and raised many causing them to re-enter and burn up in the atmosphere
concerns specifically about the defunct satellites and smaller [252].
pieces of space debris [246]. Additionally, astronomers have
already expressed their disquiet about the resulting light pollu- Information sharing and cooperation between regulators, as-
tion from the massive number of visible satellites, which will tronomers, and industry could help facilitate the establishment
probably affect their scientific observations of the Universe. of industry best practices and standards to ensure the long-term
Thus, these concerns are briefly discussed next. sustainability of both ground-based astronomy and satellite
• Light pollution: The proliferation of LEO satellites at constellations. In this direction, the ITU radio astronomy
altitudes less than 2,000 km will jeopardize the ability recommendations are devised with policy protections for radio
to observe, discover and analyze the cosmos from the astronomy service (RAS) from interference by out-of-band
Earth’s surface. The astronomy community claims that emissions, e.g. as satellites broadcasting signals must redirect
the number of visible satellites will outnumber the visible or cease such signals when passing over radio astronomy
stars and that their brightness in both optical and radio facilities. Additionally, groups like American Astronomical
wavelengths will significantly influence their scientific Society (AAS) and the International Astronomical Union
research [247]. A major issue with commercial satellite (IAU) already act as representatives of the larger astronomy
constellations is their visibility from the ground, where community, and they are actively expressing and discussing
the prime contributing factor to light pollution from astronomer’s concerns about satellite constellations with regu-
satellite constellations is the satellites size. However, lators. The successful models that resulted in progress for other
currently there are a few mitigating options that can be space sustainability issues like the United Nations working
considered to alleviate these concerns, which are pre- group on the “long-term sustainability of space” can be a good
sented in [248]. For instance, making satellites as small example to follow for regulators.
as possible, minimizing the reflectivity of satellites, and In a nutshell, in the landscape of future communications,
providing the most accurate satellite orbits to understand employing NGSO satellites within the terrestrial networks and
observational “avoidance zones” by time or location for NTNs is seen as a cornerstone for accomplishing hetero-
astronomy. The authors in [249] have called this issue an geneous global communication systems with enhanced user
“unfortunate irony” because the technology indebted to experience. However, the success of the NGSO constellations
centuries of study of orbits and electromagnetic radiation hinges on several factors including a well-organized coexis-

22
tence with other communication systems based on the regula- the AI/ML-based solutions to the computationally intense
tory procedures along with introducing optimal constellation tasks and the decision-making triggered by the network itself.
patterns, and the developments of suitable user equipment. For NGSO satellite networks, the reconfiguration capability
and vendor independence of ORAN are of special interest,
V. F UTURE R ESEARCH D IRECTIONS AND since they allow a flexible extension of the constellation by
O PPORTUNITIES adding more satellites or replacing their hardware and software
Evidently, NGSO satellites will be an essential part of with non-proprietary updates, which may work more effi-
our future communication systems, where they will converge ciently in future. In this context, there are various challenges,
with other wireless systems to achieve ubiquitous coverage, since the compatibility of such diverse hardware may require
hybrid connectivity, and high capacity. Satellite technologies a careful system design. In particular, the availability of data
are under constant development to respond to the fast-changing and the way how it is processed in different satellites needs
demands of contemporary commercial and governmental sys- to be taken into account. The most affected use cases for
tems through significantly higher capabilities and in a cost- the application of ORAN seem to be resource management,
effective manner. The disruptive potential of NGSO satellites carrier planning, and network adaptation. In addition, multi-
does not lay only in serving the poorly connected areas but layer mega-constellations seem to be the most demanding
it also promises to open new frontiers for digital innovation. scenario for such an architecture. These use cases need to
In this section, we present some futuristic visions and inno- be analyzed in order to determine the price that needs to be
vative research directions inspired by utilizing NGSO systems paid for the enhanced flexibility of ORAN.
to further advance satellite communications within versatile
applications. B. Broadband Connectivity for Space Missions
As discussed earlier, space-based Internet systems emerge
A. Open RAN as solutions to provide Internet access through a large num-
Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) initiatives are de- ber of LEO or MEO satellites. In addition to their unique
veloped to split Radio Access Network (RAN) into multiple capabilities in providing global coverage, low-latency com-
functional parts thereby enabling the interoperability of the munication, and high-speed Internet access points, they can
vendor-independent off-the-shelf hardware and openness of dramatically change the way satellite missions are designed
software and interfaces [253]. Furthermore, the movement and operated in the near future. More specifically, the number
of ORAN actively promotes disaggregated RAN architectures of small satellite constellations in lower orbits for space
enabled by standardized communication and control interfaces downstream applications, such as Earth observation, remote
among the constituent components. The goal is to empower sensing, and IoT collection, is constantly increasing. Currently,
the innovation, enhance the security and increase the sustain- downstream mission operators heavily depend on a network
ability. The ORAN Alliance [254] actively promotes these of ground stations distributed across the globe for the purpose
initiatives. Furthermore, ORAN has found its way into 3GPP of downlinking data and controlling small satellites through
standardization [255]. telemetry and telecommand (TT&C). Therefore, one of the
All these aspects are very beneficial for satellite commu- key challenges for future space missions is providing a real-
nication systems. For comparison, current satellite networks time uninterrupted connectivity, which is fairly infeasible in
mostly rely on the implementation by a single manufacturer. current satellite system infrastructure due to the magnitude
This sole manufacturer usually provides all necessary net- and cost of the needed gateway network on ground. Even
work components, which are “hard-wired” within the system though some innovative concepts towards ground network
without any possibility to reconfigure. Hence, such vendor- sharing have recently appeared, such as Amazon AWS ground
dependent satellite networks lack flexibility and adaptability, station [259] and Microsoft Azure Orbital [260], the number
especially for longer missions of more than 10 years because and duration of ground access sessions are most of the times
satellite hardware components can hardly be replaced. On the limited, preventing real-time mission operation and continuous
other hand, the persistent growth of the traffic demand and high-throughput downstreaming data.
number of services with varying requirements, demand timely Assuming a scenario where small satellites for downstream
updates of the network configuration. In this context, ORAN applications can directly access the Internet via a space-based
offers the possibility to easily exchange the components with Internet provider in a higher orbit, the small satellites can be
more advanced ones or extend the network by incorporating constantly connected to the network without depending on a
additional infrastructure [256]. Thus, the advent ORAN ar- private or shared distributed network of ground stations [261].
chitecture is foreseen as a step towards a software oriented This is certainly a game changer for the design and operation
infrastructure that enables networks to operate based on the of future downstream satellite missions, since the communi-
QoS requirement of the processed application. cation link has to be pointing towards the sky instead of the
For the emerging ORAN architecture, a novel strategy for Earth. This approach can be also replicated for the space-based
the network management has been proposed in [257], [258], Internet providers to enable a larger degree of connectivity in
which is based on AI and machine learning (ML)-driven policy space network topologies. Further, this structure can lead to
definitions and resource management . This strategy enables more inexpensive and sustainable space systems by reducing

23
the number of required ground stations, while achieving real- cloud and benefit from the faster transfer rate comparing to
time and reliable space communications. the traditional terrestrial cloud networks, especially for delay-
Employing the space-based Internet systems in this con- sensitive services.
text can provide coordination of multiple constellations and In this perspective, a startup company named Cloud Con-
awareness of the operational characteristics of each counterpart stellation is planning to establish a space-based data center
system. Additionally, space-based Internet systems will allow a platform SpaceBelt [269] that is offering secure data storage
satellite system to function strategically by transmitting TT&C through LEO satellites and well-connected secure ground
data between small satellite terminals and the NCC on the networks. In this infrastructure, the data-storage system is
ground. However, the expected connectivity improvement will built upon multiple distributed satellites equipped with data-
be achieved at the cost of higher complexity that is essential storage servers. However, the communication window between
for load balancing between satellite links and for finding paths a ground station and an NGSO satellite is sporadic and the
with the shortest end-to-end propagation delay, as well as power budget in satellites is limited. Hence, this infrastructure
tackling the dynamicity of the nodes (e.g. high relative speeds, imposes a significant challenge on developing scheduling
frequent handovers), which are yet unexplored areas in the algorithms for energy-efficient downloading files from the
literature. space-based data centers to meet dynamic demands of users
under time-varying channel conditions. Besides, the existing
C. Edge Computing operational algorithms for task scheduling in terrestrial cloud
One of the main challenges for the operation of satel- data centers are not applicable to the space-based cloud
lites in general and especially NGSO satellites is rather low infrastructures [270].
information processing capabilities of the on-board proces-
sors [262]. Consequently, complex processing tasks, such as E. IoT via NGSO Satellites
online optimization of the resource allocation strategy, data
The flexibility and scalability properties of NGSO satellites
processing for Earth observation applications, data aggrega-
make their employment within the IoT ecosystem more ap-
tion for IoT, etc., can hardly be executed using a single
pealing to shape novel architectures that uplift the interoper-
satellite processor. Instead, the processing can be done in a
ability among a plethora of applications and services [227].
distributed manner by pushing it from the central unity, e.g.
Thus, by exploiting the relatively short propagation distances
GSO satellite, to the edge, e.g. NGSO satellites [263]–[265].
of NGSO satellite constellations, IoT terminals can be de-
Besides that, computation offloading via NGSO satellites has
signed to be small-sized, long-life, and low-power, which is
been proposed in various works, e.g. [266]. Moreover, edge
ideal for the IoT operation. Moreover, the reduced OPEX and
computing has emerged as promising solution to alleviate
CAPEX of NGSO satellites comparing to GSO ones render
the high latency issue by deploying processing and storage
them into good facilitators for the deployment of efficient
resource closer to users, especially for resource-hungry and
IoT services over wide geographical areas [271]. Hence, these
delay-sensitive applications. Thus, integrating edge computing
exceptional features of NGSO satellites can unleash the full
into NGSO networks can improve the performance of satellite
potentials of IoT, and that will establish a universal network
networks by providing near-device processing capability. In
with billions of worldwide interconnected devices.
this system, large amount of data generated by users can
In this direction, the 3GPP organization in its release 17
be processed through NGSO satellites instead of redirecting
[272] has studied the necessary changes to support Narrow-
it to other servers, which will reduce network traffic load
Band IoT (NB-IoT) over satellites, including both GSO and
and the processing delay. While this application seems very
NGSO systems. The objective here is to identify a set of
promising, its practical limitations and requirements are not
features and adaptations enabling the operation of NB-IoT
yet fully understood as it has started to attract the attention of
within NTN structure with a priority on satellite access. In this
researchers only in the last few years.
context, some works have already started to adapt and evaluate
D. Space-based Cloud these protocols under the NGSO system constraints specifi-
cally the relative satellite motion [273]–[276]. Nevertheless,
Far from the common use of satellites as relay devices,
the progress is still in an early stage and more research efforts
the space-based cloud concept has emerged as a promising
are required for a seamless integration, particularly in connect-
and secured paradigm for data storage over NGSO satellites,
ing NGSO satellites to mobile or stationary IoT devices and
particularly in the context of big data technologies and applica-
supporting ultra reliable low latency communications.
tions [267]. The key advantage of space-based data storage is
providing complete immunity from natural disasters occurring
F. Caching Over NGSO Satellites
on Earth. Furthermore, utilizing NGSO satellites for data
storage can offer more flexibility to some cloud networks that Benefiting from the high-capacity backhaul links and ubiq-
are designed to transfer data globally regardless the geograph- uitous coverage, NGSO satellites can help bring content closer
ical boundaries and terrestrial obstacles [268]. For instance, to the end users, and thus, these satellites can be considered
mega-corporations and large organizations that are located at as an option for data caching. NGSO satellites also have the
different global sites can share big data through a space-based ability to multi-cast data and quickly update the cached content

24
over different locations [277]. Additionally, the symbiotic re- connectivity across the globe with low latency and high
lationship between satellite and terrestrial telecommunication service density. Further, amalgamating edge computing and
systems can be exploited to create a hybrid federated content caching technologies with NGSO networks will enable data
delivery network, which will substantially ameliorate user storage and processing solutions that are faster, safer, and far
experience [278]. Therefore, integration of NGSO satellites more flexible than traditional offerings. Additionally, NGSO
into future Internet with enabling in-network caching makes satellites can be used as reliable data storage to construct
traffic demands from users for the same content to be easily space-based clouds. Finally, connecting various NGSO satel-
accommodated without multiple transmissions, and thereby, lites, aerial platforms, and IoT terminals with the terrestrial
more spectral resources can be saved along with reducing infrastructure to construct a multi-layer integrated system can
transmission delay. Further, a promising strategy in this con- support real-time communications, massive data transmission,
text is the combination of caching with edge computing over and systematized information services.
NGSO satellites, such that data processing, content analysis
and caching are seamlessly integrated and harmonized [279]. VI. C ONCLUSIONS
However, the time-varying network topology and limited on-
board resources in NGSO satellites have to be taken into ac- The deployment of NGSO satellites has been trending over
count when designing caching placement algorithms alongside the recent years owing to their less free space attenuation,
with their fast convergence and low complexity. low-profile antenna, small propagation delay, and the reduced
orbital injection cost per satellite. The successful realization
G. Aerial Platforms and NGSO Coordination of NGSO communication systems is being achieved by the
Aerial platforms including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) ongoing development of new technologies and the growing
and HAPS are expected to play a crucial role in 6G wireless interest and investments, which have indeed pushed the satel-
network development owing to due to their wider coverage lite communication potentials towards higher bounds that need
footprints, strong LoS links, and flexibility of deployment to be explored to support the rapid proliferation of various
compared to terrestrial networks [280]. The use cases of low- space-based applications and services. In addition, NGSO
cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as flying mobile base- systems can be employed to support the terrestrial networks
station are rapidly growing to expand wide-scale coverage to overcome their limitations to match the rapid 5G ecosystem
range and improve wireless network capacity. Integrating ter- evolution though increasing the offered coverage and network
restrial, airborne, and satellite networks into a single wireless capacity.
system could provide comprehensive and efficient services. This survey presents the uprising technologies and research
Moreover, UAVs and HAPS offer a high degree of mobility outlook in the realm of NGSO satellite communication sys-
and a high chance for the LoS connectivity, which makes tems along with the key technical challenges to integrate
them perfect mobile relays for the satellite-terrestrial links NGSO satellites into the global wireless communication plat-
[281]. The use of NGSO and especially LEO satellites seems forms. Particularly, we conducted a detailed study on various
very promising due to a much smaller latency compared to communication aspects of NGSO satellites starting from the
GSO satellites, which is a necessary condition for the proper physical layer up to the applications and the entire struc-
functioning and autonomous operation of the UAVs [282]. tural design visions. Specifically, a detailed study of different
By introducing UAVs as part of the integrated space-air- physical connectivity and radio access schemes for multi-
ground system novel types of networks have been envi- orbit satellites have been presented by reviewing the develop-
sioned [282], such as UAV-aided cognitive satellite-terrestrial ments on inter-satellite connectivity, active antenna systems,
networks [283], cell-free satellite-UAV networks as part of waveform design, and link diversity and multiplexing. Next,
future 6G systems [284], etc. Specifically, massive integrated the progress of establishing space information networking
networks are envisioned with multiple satellite orbits as part paradigms to cater for the unprecedented complexity and the
of NGSO mega-constellations, multiple UAVs and HAPS. scalability requirements is provided. The efforts on evolving
Such networks pose many challenges for the coordination, NGSO satellites within current communication systems and
navigation and synchronization. Some of the challenges have architectures are also explored in terms of radio resource
been investigated in [285]–[287] for FSO, RF and hybrid optimization, interference management, spectrum sharing, and
signaling. Further, the typical impairments to be considered security issues.
in this context are high Doppler shift, pointing errors and Moreover, in addition to studying the restrictions due to
outdated CSI. Another challenge is the topology control and the coexistence with GSO systems, constellation design and
multi-hop signal routing for such dynamic networks. resource management challenges, and user equipment require-
To summarize the key takeaway messages from this sec- ments are explored as well. Afterwards, several innovative
tions, NGSO satellites are highly anticipated to be an im- visions and research directions motivated by utilizing NGSO
portant player in reshaping various vertical applications and systems to deliver highly reliable and efficient global satel-
covering-up the flaws of current terrestrial communication lite communications for various applications are highlighted.
systems. Specifically, some forward-looking views on NGSO Ultimately, this article covers the communication aspects and
constellations are explored in terms of seamless broadband deployment challenges of NGSO satellites in the hope that

25
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