Description
Upon Delegation Request (*) The objective of the activity is to develop, manufacture and test an integrated automotive S-band antenna that combines satellite IoT and 5G terrestrial communications. Targeted Improvements: Reduction of antenna form factor from a protruding antenna (e.g. shark fin shape) to planar antenna fully integrated in the car roof. Bandwidth increase from 30 to 90 MHz for satellite and 5G communications. Description: The Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G communications represent an opportunity for satellite operators. In this context, it is desirable to develop solutions that support both markets by using the same radiating aperture.For example, the 5G network can be off-loaded by providing access to the satellite to automotive terminals for specific applications, such as broadcast of news, emergency and weather forecast information, multicast of software updates, IoT, etc. A frequency ofinterest for the integration of these two networks is S-band. It has been allocated for 5G and has been used by satellite operatorsfor years. Several of them have launched, or are planning to launch, satellites with S-band capabilities. Current S-band antennas for integrated terrestrial and satellite applications support just the upper part of 3GPP band n65, corresponding to 30MHz of bandwidth. In addition, these antennas are shark fin shaped, which is not desirable for its integration and aerodynamics impact on vehicles. An antenna able to provide S-band connectivity to both 5G terrestrial and satellite networks for automotive terminals will likelyrequire measures to mitigate interference with other wireless services operating in the same frequencies and to distinguish the satellite and the terrestrial signals. A beam steering array with a moderate number of elements can be considered to achieve higher data rates. An important aspect is the integration of the antenna aperture in the structure of the car (e.g. roof, windshield, etc.) toprovidehigher integration compared to standard shark fin S-band antennas. To address all these issues, the activity will identifypossible automotive antenna architectures that can provide S-band connectivity to both the 5G terrestrial and satellite networks. The capability of the technology to achieve smooth handovers between these networks and simultaneous communications will be studied. This wouldallow, for instance, combining 5G broadband access over terrestrial networks and narrowband IoT broadcast over satellite (multicastinformation like traffic, weather, emergency, firmware upgrade, etc). A trade-off between different solutions and architectures, considering their performance and their integration in the car structure will be carried out. The most adequate solution will be demonstrated through the manufacturing and testing of a prototype. (*) Upon Delegation Request activities will only be initiated on the explicit request of at least one delegation.