ANCORSAT

System/ Network/ Protocols

Status

Ongoing
Status date

2022-05-25
Activity Code

3A.109

Objectives

ANCORSAT shall identify the IoT technical requirements in various satellite network scenarios, for different traffics and not only limited to LEO, but also GEO scenarios, to define specific virtual network functions that could comprise a satellite network slice, to demonstrate the IoT satellite network slice in a testbed, and to contribute in 5G definition of network slicing architectures. This shall be followed up with the technical design & development of an end-to-end test bed to demonstrate and verify Satellite IoT use cases for Agile 5G Network Configurations.

Challenges

The key challenges involved are, the identification and utilization of State-of-the-Art technologies that can be further optimized for satellite scenarios. As of today, there is no development of such technology that can be used off the shelf to implement and test network scenarios for satellite IoT use cases. This necessitates the use of state of the art to be optimized and optimize it for Satellite IoT networks, as this is an emerging field.

Benefits

This project will benefit both the satellite and the telecommunication domains as the test bed developed can be used to test end-to-end multiple use case scenarios involving both terrestrial and non-terrestrial network components.

Features

The project supports the network slicing paradigm that allows building a rich logical topology on the top of the same physical infrastructure to address various satellite-based IoT traffic classes. Recent advances in softwarization, virtualization and containerization has enabled the automation of end-to-end network slice management and orchestration for a fair, optimal and efficient resource allocation among various tenants. On the other hand, the project reuses and exploits many popular open source frameworks. This increases the flexibility of the solution to support new features in the future and boosts its cost-effectiveness as there are no license fees. The project will also benefit from abundant support and troubleshooting via communities and forums.

System Architecture

The test shall comprise relevant functionalities of the space segment, user segment and the ground segment for testing and demonstration of network configurations for LEO and GEO orbits use cases for satellite IoT Networks.

Detailed updates shall follow in future phases of the project.

Plan

The Project shall have the following phases:

Feasibility Study
Requirements Engineering
Design Engineering
Development & Testing
Demonstration

Current status

Currently, the project is undergoing the Design Engineering phase, which is coming to an end in July 2022. Following this, the project will enter the Development, Integration & Testing phase, which shall focus on implementing the proposed design, integrating various components for an E2E solution, and testing various functionalities and features of the project.