Novel Architecture for Cellular IoT in Future Non-Terrestrial Networks: Store and Forward Adaptations for Enabling Discontinuous Feeder Link Operation
The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm has already progressed from an emerging technology to an incredibly fast-growing field. Defined as one of the three key services in 5th Generation (5G), massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC) are intended to enable the wide-spread adoption of IoT services ac...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IEEE
2022-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Access |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9810201/ |
| _version_ | 1818521943227236352 |
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| author | Timo Kellermann Roger Pueyo Centelles Daniel Camps-Mur Ramon Ferrus Marco Guadalupi Anna Calveras Auge |
| author_facet | Timo Kellermann Roger Pueyo Centelles Daniel Camps-Mur Ramon Ferrus Marco Guadalupi Anna Calveras Auge |
| author_sort | Timo Kellermann |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm has already progressed from an emerging technology to an incredibly fast-growing field. Defined as one of the three key services in 5th Generation (5G), massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC) are intended to enable the wide-spread adoption of IoT services across the globe. Satellite-based Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) are crucial in providing connectivity with global coverage including rural and offshore areas, which are fundamental for supporting important use cases in future networks. A rapidly growing market for IoT devices with mMTC applications using NarrowBand-IoT (NB-IoT) will represent a large share of user equipment (UE) in such areas. While standardization efforts for NTN are underway for forthcoming 3GPP releases, they focus on transparent payload architectures where the satellite platform is necessarily connected to a ground station gateway to be able to provide satellite access services to IoT devices, thus requiring complex ground segment infrastructure in low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation deployments to achieve global coverage. In contrast, satellite network deployments targeting the delivery of delay-tolerant IoT applications using NB-IoT, which are a major mMTC use case, can benefit from architectures based on the use of regenerative payloads in the satellite and support for Store and Forward (S&F) operation where satellite access can remain operational even at times when the satellite is not connected to a ground station. In particular, such an approach would allow for extending satellite service coverage in areas where satellites cannot be connected to ground stations (e.g. maritime or very remote areas with lack of ground-stations infrastructures), improving ground segment affordability by enabling operation with fewer ground-stations and allowing more robust operation of the satellite under intermittent feeder link operation. In this paper, we provide a high-level design of an extended 3GPP architecture featuring store and forward mechanisms for IoT NTN delay-tolerant applications that address the previous challenges, as well as a laboratory validation of said architecture for a specific use case. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T01:58:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2e2149a7329e45e8b1b4c86a16e8b0cb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2169-3536 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T01:58:09Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Access |
| spelling | doaj.art-2e2149a7329e45e8b1b4c86a16e8b0cb2022-12-22T01:24:33ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362022-01-0110689226893610.1109/ACCESS.2022.31847209810201Novel Architecture for Cellular IoT in Future Non-Terrestrial Networks: Store and Forward Adaptations for Enabling Discontinuous Feeder Link OperationTimo Kellermann0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7860-1330Roger Pueyo Centelles1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3133-0657Daniel Camps-Mur2Ramon Ferrus3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8296-6233Marco Guadalupi4Anna Calveras Auge5https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6371-8595i2CAT, Barcelona, SpainDepartament d’Enginyeria Telemàtica, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spaini2CAT, Barcelona, SpainDepartament d’Enginyeria Telemàtica, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, SpainSATELIOT, Barcelona, SpainDepartament d’Enginyeria Telemàtica, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, SpainThe Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm has already progressed from an emerging technology to an incredibly fast-growing field. Defined as one of the three key services in 5th Generation (5G), massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC) are intended to enable the wide-spread adoption of IoT services across the globe. Satellite-based Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) are crucial in providing connectivity with global coverage including rural and offshore areas, which are fundamental for supporting important use cases in future networks. A rapidly growing market for IoT devices with mMTC applications using NarrowBand-IoT (NB-IoT) will represent a large share of user equipment (UE) in such areas. While standardization efforts for NTN are underway for forthcoming 3GPP releases, they focus on transparent payload architectures where the satellite platform is necessarily connected to a ground station gateway to be able to provide satellite access services to IoT devices, thus requiring complex ground segment infrastructure in low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation deployments to achieve global coverage. In contrast, satellite network deployments targeting the delivery of delay-tolerant IoT applications using NB-IoT, which are a major mMTC use case, can benefit from architectures based on the use of regenerative payloads in the satellite and support for Store and Forward (S&F) operation where satellite access can remain operational even at times when the satellite is not connected to a ground station. In particular, such an approach would allow for extending satellite service coverage in areas where satellites cannot be connected to ground stations (e.g. maritime or very remote areas with lack of ground-stations infrastructures), improving ground segment affordability by enabling operation with fewer ground-stations and allowing more robust operation of the satellite under intermittent feeder link operation. In this paper, we provide a high-level design of an extended 3GPP architecture featuring store and forward mechanisms for IoT NTN delay-tolerant applications that address the previous challenges, as well as a laboratory validation of said architecture for a specific use case.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9810201/NB-IoT NTNLEO constellationstore and forward |
| spellingShingle | Timo Kellermann Roger Pueyo Centelles Daniel Camps-Mur Ramon Ferrus Marco Guadalupi Anna Calveras Auge Novel Architecture for Cellular IoT in Future Non-Terrestrial Networks: Store and Forward Adaptations for Enabling Discontinuous Feeder Link Operation IEEE Access NB-IoT NTN LEO constellation store and forward |
| title | Novel Architecture for Cellular IoT in Future Non-Terrestrial Networks: Store and Forward Adaptations for Enabling Discontinuous Feeder Link Operation |
| title_full | Novel Architecture for Cellular IoT in Future Non-Terrestrial Networks: Store and Forward Adaptations for Enabling Discontinuous Feeder Link Operation |
| title_fullStr | Novel Architecture for Cellular IoT in Future Non-Terrestrial Networks: Store and Forward Adaptations for Enabling Discontinuous Feeder Link Operation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Novel Architecture for Cellular IoT in Future Non-Terrestrial Networks: Store and Forward Adaptations for Enabling Discontinuous Feeder Link Operation |
| title_short | Novel Architecture for Cellular IoT in Future Non-Terrestrial Networks: Store and Forward Adaptations for Enabling Discontinuous Feeder Link Operation |
| title_sort | novel architecture for cellular iot in future non terrestrial networks store and forward adaptations for enabling discontinuous feeder link operation |
| topic | NB-IoT NTN LEO constellation store and forward |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9810201/ |
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