Description
Objective: The objective of this activity is to design, develop and test automotive prototypes following 5GAA workplans and increase the number of companies working on automotive satellite communications by 30%. Targeted Improvements: Novel hand-over methods between satellite and terrestrial networks supporting use cases as formulated by 5GAA and miniaturised automotive terminal baseband units.Description: The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) workplans highlight various architectures and technologies that need to be developed to enable automotive satellite communications.These range from antenna integration, protocol development, 5G NTN prototypes with specific automotive characteristics and predictive terrestrial-satellite handover for 5G automotive connectivity.This activity will support the evolving 5GAA workplans and carry out up to about twenty five prototyping activities. This will include novel automotive antenna integration concepts, novel handover schemes and 5G air interface robustness tests. As the 5GAA workplan is continuously evolving, subsequent further prototyping activities will be defined by ESA during the activity, in accord with the prime contractor. This will allow initiating small prototyping activities in line with work-areas defined in the 5GAA workplan. The activity will engage with the community of start-up companies, university spin-offs, very small companies which often implement projects in the spirit of open-source hardware and full sharing of intellectual property, and normally do not engage with ESA. A prime contractor willbe responsible managing