Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Universal connectivity has been part of past and current generations of wireless systems, but as we approach the sixth generation (6G), the subject of social responsibility is being built as a core component. Given the advent of Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN), reaching these goals will be much closer to realization than ever before. Owing to the benefits of NTN, the integration of NTN and Terrestrial Networks (TN) is still at its infancy, where the past, the current and future standard releases within the 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) provide guidelines to adopt a successfully co-existence/integration of TN and NTN. Therefore, in this article, we illustrate, through 3GPP guidelines, how NTN and TN can effectively be integrated. Moreover, the role of beamforming and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is highlighted to achieve this integration. Finally, the usefulness of integrating NTN and TN is validated through numerical analysis.
Institutions: University of Glasgow, Manchester Metropolitan University, Futurewei Technologies (United States), Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni, Orange (France), University of Luxembourg, Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paris-Saclay, Laboratoire des signaux et systèmes, CentraleSupélec, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Language: English
Subfield: Aerospace Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1190173965, G1463304763, G1617124451, Joint Sensing and Communications for Future Interactive, Immersive, and Intelligent Connectivity Beyond Communications, Beyond 5G mmWave Circuits, Antennas and RIS, G2559059231, G2987309065, Physics-based wireless AI providing scalability and efficiency, G4384862669, G6683820337, G680659151, G7863789314, G8921317170
OpenAlex ID: W4410614307