Date of publication xxxx 00, 0000, date of current version xxxx 00, 0000.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2017.DOI

Satellite-Based Non-Terrestrial Networks

in 5G: Insights and Challenges
ATA SATTARZADEH1 , YUN LIU2 , ABDELRAHIM MOHAMED1 , RUILIANG SONG2 , PEI XIAO1 ,
ZHIQUN SONG2 , HAIPENG ZHANG2 , RAHIM TAFAZOLLI1 and CHUANFENG NIU2
1
5GIC and 6GIC, Institute for communication systems (ICS), University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom
2
The 54th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, Shijiazhuang, 050000, China
Corresponding author: Yun Liu (e-mail: [email protected]).

ABSTRACT Non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) will become an indispensable part of future wireless
networks. Integration with terrestrial networks will provide new opportunities for both satellite and
terrestrial telecommunication industries and therefore there is a need to harmonize them in a unified
technological framework. Among different NTNs, low earth orbit (LEO) satellites have gained increasing
attention in recent years and several companies have filed federal communication commission (FCC)
proposals to deploy their LEO constellation in space. This is mainly due to several desired features such
as large capacity and low latency. In addition, recent successful LEO network deployments such as Starlink
have motivated other companies. In the past satellite and terrestrial wireless networks have been evolving
separately but now they are joining forces to enhance coverage and connectivity experience in the future
wireless networks. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is one of the dominating standardization
bodies that is working on various technical aspects to provide ubiquitous access to the 5G networks with
the aid of NTNs. Initial steps have been taken to adopt 5G state of the art technologies and concepts and
harmonized them with the conditions met in non-terrestrial networks. In this article, we review some of
the important technical considerations in 5G NTNs with emphasis on the radio access network (RAN) part
and provide some simulation based results to assess the required modifications and shed light on the design
considerations.

INDEX TERMS New Radio (NR), Non-terrestrial Networks (NTNs), 5G.

I. INTRODUCTION barriers that prevents many users around the world from
gaining access to wireless networks. According to Global
G networks are evolving to meet the new demands in
5 the telecommunication industry. The increase in demands
for better services including high speed, low latency and IoT
System for Mobile Association (GSMA) reports, roughly 4
billion people still do not have access to the internet to date
[1].
massive connection, is pushing the communication industry
towards a unified network infrastructure in order to provide Wireless networks coverage is limited to the access points’
customized services for various verticals industries. Different locations and their footprints. To enhance the coverage the
use cases have diverse and sometimes conflicting require- number of access points should be increased and they should
ments which calls for novel technological solutions. Unlike be deployed in the locations where the service is requested.
its predecessors, 5G is an integration of vertical technologies Apparently, due to the economic and logistic reasons, the
and architectures which is designed to be highly adaptive and cost for global terrestrial network deployment cannot be
can tailor and optimize itself for different services. This is justified. This is where the non-terrestrial networks (NTNs)
in sharp contrast with previous generations where the ser- comes in as an effective solution to complement the terrestrial
vice requirements are sacrificed and compromised to fit the networks and provide coverage and capacity for under-served
network capabilities. Therefore, 5G needs to have a very dy- and isolated areas. Although the coverage extension can be
namic network structure to properly manage its resources and identified as the main reason of interest in NTNs but there
accommodate heterogeneous wireless connectivities. Despite are several other benefits to integrate NTNs with terrestrial
all the improvements in 5G, coverage is still one of the main networks. The 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) as

VOLUME 1, 2021 1
 Author et al.: Preparation of Papers for IEEE TRANSACTIONS and JOURNALS

the dominating standardization development body, has been circular orbit with different inclination angles. An example
working to make satellites viable for coverage extension for MEO constellation is O3b network [6]. Leo satellites
and service provision [2]. Accordingly, several use cases have the lowest altitude between 300 Km to 1500 km and
have been identified for NTNs which in turn promotes their have circular orbits which can be inclined or polar. The orbit
special role in the future network. In addition to providing 5G period of the GEO satellites is the same as the orbit period of
coverage for isolated, unserved or under-served areas, NTNs the earth but in the case of MEO and LEO, it is much shorter
will reinforce the 5G service reliability by providing service and for this reason, they are usually referred to as Non-GEO
continuity for machine to machine (M2M) and IoT devices satellites.
and enhance 5G network scalability by providing efficient Recently and after a silent period from the 90’s, significant
multicast/broadcast resources for data delivery towards the attention is being gained by LEO satellites and different
network edges or even directly to user terminals. A more companies have shown strong interest in deploying them with
comprehensive list of NTN use cases in 5G is available in large constellations. Since the number of satellites in these
[3]. constellations is large, they are usually referred to as mega-
Integrating the 5G networks with satellite communications constellations. The main purpose of these constellations is to
as a unified system is a paradigm with technical challenges. provide ubiquitous internet access to the users [7]. In satellite
These challenges and potential incompatibilities should be networks with Mega-constellation, hundreds or thousands
identified, assessed and then proper solutions should be pro- of LEO satellites are deployed to provide global coverage
posed to resolve them. Apart from the 3GPP, several other and user service connectivity. There are several reasons that
projects such as Sat5G, VITAL, SATis5 and SANSA have make LEO satellites appealing. The first is the acceptable
also demonstrated solutions to federate the satellite networks delay of data transmission using LEO satellites. One of the
with 5G technologies [4], [5]. These projects cover different main concerns of integrating conventional GEO satellites
aspects from the New Radio (NR) compatibility in satellite with terrestrial networks is the large round-trip time which
communications to the network architecture and methods of imposes heavy restrictions on the networks and their services.
implementing a unified hybrid 5G network using technology Keeping in mind that 5G aims to minimize the delay in its
enablers including software defined radio (SDR) and network services, LEO satellites can have round trip times around
function virtualization (NFV). 25 ms or even less which is an order of magnitude less
In this paper we review some of the main challenges and than traditional GEO satellites. LEO satellites can provide
solutions for 5G NTNs. In the next section, we will provide better coverage at high latitudes where GEO satellites would
a review on the main components of satellites based non- suffer high propagation losses and longer round-trip times.
terrestrial networks including satellites and user equipment The other interesting property of the LEO satellites is the
and the connectivity structure. In Section III, four fundamen- better spectral efficiency achieved by these networks. In LEO
tal procedures in 5G network are revisited. These include the free space path loss is lower than MEO or GEO. Apart
synchronization, paging, random access and handover. We from lower signal energy loss, deploying a large number of
review the impact of NTN on these items and using simu- satellites with restricted footprints and focused beams on the
lations we give insight into how they are affected and how ground, like a cellular network, can provide better frequency
they should be modified. Finally, Section IV concludes the reuse capabilities which enhances the total network average
paper. spectral efficiency. Reduction in cost of satellite development
and production and improvements in satellite deployment
II. SATELLITES-BASED NON-TERRESTRIAL capabilities also contribute to the promotion of using LEO
NETWORKS satellites in recent years.
In satellite-based NTNs, satellites play the role of coverage In this paper, our focus is on LEO satellites and we review
extension for isolated areas and provide edge content delivery some design challenges faced when integrating 5G and LEO
services for the terrestrial nodes. Integrated with the 5G networks.
terrestrial networks, the service continuity would be obtained
and the goals of a unified heterogeneous network can be A. USER EQUIPMENT
achieved. In general, satellites are categorized into three dif- In NTN two different types of user equipment are considered.
ferent classes, namely Geostationary Earth Orbiting (GEO), The first one is handheld devices with Omni-directional
Medium Earth Orbiting (MEO) and Low Earth Orbiting antennas and the other one is the Very Small Aperture
(LEO) satellites. Terminals (VSAT) terminals with directional antennas [8].
GEO satellites are deployed at an altitude of 35786 Km The handheld devices work in lower frequency bands such
over the equator and have a circular orbit with zero inclina- as S-band and it is envisioned that they would be able to
tion angle. In an earth-fixed reference frame, their location connect to both terrestrial and non-terrestrial 5G networks
appears to be fixed in the sky. This is interesting since the directly, making it possible to have a ubiquitous 5G network
transmitting and receiving antennas usually do not need any access. Devices supporting dual connectivity will be able to
specific tracking capabilities. MEO satellites are deployed at seamlessly handover 5G connections between terrestrial and
an altitude between 7000 Km to 25000 km and usually use a non-terrestrial networks. Low-end IoT devices also will op-
2 VOLUME 1, 2021
Author et al.: Preparation of Papers for IEEE TRANSACTIONS and JOURNALS

erate in lower frequency bands and employ Omni-directional

antennas with minimum complexity. These devices do not
need to support dual connectivity [10]. On the other hand,
VSAT terminals will operate in higher frequency bands such
as Ka-band. While bandwidth in handheld devices is usually
limited, VSAT terminals can operate with higher bandwidth.
They use directional antennas with higher gains and better
spectral efficiencies. VSAT terminals that connect to the non-
GEO satellites should be able to track LEO or MEO satellites
and therefore they are equipped with steerable beam anten-
nas. In [8] typical characteristics for each of these devices
are summarized.

B. SATELLITE PAYLOAD
Three different options have been proposed for satellite
payloads which are shown schematically in Fig.1. The first
one is the transparent payloads where the received signals
are forwarded to the ground gateway (GW) without any
processing. The received signals are only up-converted or FIGURE 1. Possible network structures in NTN
down-converted in frequency and then they are forwarded
to the GWs. The gateway will direct the received signal
to a gNB (i.e. 5G base station) which is usually deployed ability to these networks.
nearby. This is a simple architecture that has been adopted The third payload type is a centralized unit-distributed
in many satellites systems. An example of the modern LEO unite (CU-DU) separated structure which has been proposed
constellation utilizing transparent payloads is OneWeb [11]. and used in NG-RAN [13]. The gNB is divided into CU
In addition, several conventional broadcasting GEO satellites which is deployed at the GW and DU which is deployed on
use transparent payloads. In this architecture, the gNB which the satellites. Usually, CU will host radio resource control
is located at the GW, can simultaneously be connected to (RRC), service data application protocol (SDAP) and packet
multiple satellites. It is also possible to have multiple in- data convergence protocol (PDCP) and DU hosts radio link
stances of gNBs at a GW, which are coordinated and share control (RLC), medium access control (MAC), and physical
the same resources. The ground station will have multiple layers (PHY). The F1 link which connects CU to DU is im-
highly directional tracking antennas deployed at the same plemented using the satellite radio interface (SRI). Each CU
site. Here each satellite will act as a mirror which reflects the can connect to multiple DU and may perform coordination
transmitted signals of the gNBs to cover a larger area. One according to the CU-DU separation options [8].
can consider this as a gNB with a large set of different beams In any of these three payload types, the link between
or sectors covering a wide area. The access to these networks the user and the satellite can also be relayed. When UE
are very dependent on the location of the GWs and therefore, uses a relay to connect to satellites, 5G-NR will be used to
their location should be carefully optimized to achieve the communicate with the relay, and the relay can use 5G-NR
required coverage, throughput and delay constraints. Since or other types of interfaces such as DVB-S2X to connect to
in transparent payloads the transmitted data is not processed the satellites and GWs. Here, there is no need to modify the
at the satellites, we can not have inter-satellite links (ISLs) to conventional 5G user handsets and it is only the relay node
build a space-based network and route data packets directly that is responsible for communicating with the satellites.
between satellites.
The second payload type is the regenerative payload C. SATELLITE BEAMS
which embarks on-board processors to receive and decode The design of the satellite antenna can have a huge impact
exchanged signals. In 5G NTN with direct access to the on the throughput and procedures involved in implementing
satellites, the connection link between users and the satel- 5G NTN including handover and paging. There are two main
lite would use 5G NR, and the link between satellite and types of antenna beams that are used for satellites namely
gateways which is usually referred to as feeder link is a the fixed-beam antennas and the steerable-beam antennas. In
transport link with arbitrary protocols. Using ISLs, satellites the first category as the name indicates, antenna beams are
are able to directly route a packet without using the GWs. fixed relative to the satellite body and therefore they will
This will produce a space-based network where in many move on the ground as the satellite moves. The speed of
cases can reduce the packet transmission latency in long- the beams on the ground depends on the satellite altitude
distance communications [12]. Having on-board processing and can vary from about 6.9 km/s to 0 for LEO with 600
capabilities and using software-defined radios (SDRs) and km altitude and GEO satellites respectively. On the other
software-defined networks (SDN) bring flexibility and adapt- hand, the steerable beams can keep the beam on a target
VOLUME 1, 2021 3
 Author et al.: Preparation of Papers for IEEE TRANSACTIONS and JOURNALS

user as long as the minimum elevation angle for the satellite at 3 GHz and 30 GHz frequencies respectively. This is far
network is not reached. In phased array antennas, by steering beyond what is tolerable in conventional 5G receivers which
the beam from the bore-sight the beam-width will increase should be usually less than 5ppm. Therefore, in order to keep
and at the same time, the gain of the beam will begin to the receiver structure unchanged, we need some mechanisms
decrease. Modern phase array antennas usually are capable to reduce the carrier frequency offset (CFO) at the receivers
of managing these changes and reducing the beam widening and meet the acceptable CFO levels in 5G. One common ap-
and scanning loss effects due to the beam steering. This proach is to perform CFO or doppler pre-compensation at the
type of antenna can also potentially reduce the handover rate transmitter. The pre-compensation is performed according to
in the system. With fixed beam antennas, as the satellites the doppler of a selected point for each beam (i.e. centre of
move rapidly, we need to perform intra-satellite inter-beam each beam) and can effectively reduce the maximum CFO
handovers but with steerable beams, this type of handover within acceptable regions [8]. This is possible because of the
can be avoided. It is worth noting that due to the limited known location of the beams and ephemeris of the satellite
number of RF chains, in either of these antenna types only at the network side. The residual doppler depends on the
a limited number of beams can be active at each time. The size of the footprint of each beam and smaller footprints will
number of active beams in practical satellite networks is have smaller residual doppler. For example let us consider a
usually less than 40 [7]. Therefore, utilizing effective beam satellite orbiting in 600 km height with minimum elevation
management and resource allocation techniques are crucial. angle for visibility equal to 40◦ . Following the guidelines
The application of advanced signal processing techniques provided in 3GPP reports [8], for the beam layout which
like massive MIMO, can help to improve the efficiency of obeys the hexagonal tessellation for the terrestrial networks
the spectrum utilization [14]. By increasing the number of in UV-plane, the footprint of the antenna can be produced as
beams, the spectrum can be more effectively reused in the what is shown in Fig. 2 [8]. The radius of the whole coverage
network and more users can be simultaneously served by the area would be approximately 620 Km. Assuming the radius
satellite. An example for LEO satellites with fixed beams of the footprint of the nadir beam to be ≈ 50 km, we need 85
is OneWeb which has 16 highly elliptical beams and both beams to fill the coverage area. In such a pattern, without
Starlink and Telesat use steerable and adjustable beams [15], performing any doppler pre-compensation, the maximum
[16]. carrier frequency offset produced by doppler and experienced
at the receiver is about 17.5 ppm. After pre-compensation for
III. 5G NON-TERRESTRIAL NETWORKS each beam and according to center point of the beams, this
In this section, we review some of the main challenges in value is reduced to approximately 2.1 ppm for any individual
deploying 5G using non-terrestrial satellite networks. Delay, beam which would be tolerable at conventional 5G receivers.
doppler, and short visiting times are the main characteristic of Timing Advance (TA) is another mechanism in 5G that
Non-GEO satellite networks. We will focus on the main pro- will be affected due to large delays. The purpose of TA
cedures in the network and discuss the technical challenges. is to adjust the transmission timing of different users so
To meet those challenges, either the standard procedures that their received signals at the gNB are aligned in time.
should be slightly updated and changed or smart solutions Large propagation delays in satellite communications impose
should be proposed to successfully accommodate available serious restrictions on reusing the same terrestrial network
network structures and procedures. procedures and timing adjustments. The propagation delay
in NTN depends on the altitude of the satellite, payload type
A. SYNCHRONIZATION and location of GWs, and ranges from several milliseconds
Delay and doppler are the two main channel impairments to hundreds of milliseconds. In contrast, propagation delays
that should be addressed in NTNs. The first step for users to in terrestrial networks are usually less than 1ms. This calls
access a 5G network is to receive the synchronization signals for redesigning the timers to meet the new circumstances
transmitted from the satellites and synchronize with a gNB. [18]. In terrestrial 5G networks, TA estimation is performed
The synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) are transmitted in in the random access procedure where the user wants to
periodic bursts with a periodicity of 5 ms to 160 ms in time. establish a connection with the network. The gNB estimates
Each burst has 240 sub-carriers in frequency and 4 OFDM the TA by measuring the reception time of the received
symbols length [17]. The long delay and large doppler fre- random access preamble and feedback the TA to the UE. The
quencies make synchronization challenging. The doppler will maximum TA which can be compensated is dependent on the
cause (carrier frequency offset) CFO at the receiver which NR numerology and ranges from 2 ms for 15 kHz subcarrier
will degrade the performance of the SSB detection. The spacing to 0.15 ms for 240 kHz sub-carrier spacing [2]. These
amount of CFO depends on the relative speed of the UE values will restrict the NTN beam size.
and satellite. In terrestrial networks, the maximum doppler In NTN, if UE has access to its own location and satellite
for a user with 1000 km/h speed in 3 GHz carrier frequency ephemeris, then it can calculate the TA and also the doppler
region would be about 2.8 kHz and this would raise up to frequency with a good resolution. Otherwise, TA should be
28 kHz for 30 GHz carrier frequencies. However, the doppler adjusted using the network indication. Here, the common part
frequency in NTN can be as high as 50 kHz up to 720 kHz of the delay can be calculated by the network and broadcasted
4 VOLUME 1, 2021
Author et al.: Preparation of Papers for IEEE TRANSACTIONS and JOURNALS

FIGURE 2. Left figure shows that antenna beam layout in UV-plane and the right figure shows the same beam layout on the ground

to the users in each cell. Therefore, the TA adjustment on the paging and random access capacity of the network
procedure will then only compensate for the remaining TA which is discussed next section.
difference between users in a cell. Consequently, the cov- As mentioned before, synchronization begins with SSB
erage region or equivalently beamwidth of antenna patterns block detection at the receiver. In NTN, Each beam of the
should be carefully designed to meet the maximum possible satellite can either represent a separate cell, transmitting a
TA adjustment values in the initial access of the users in unique Physical Cell-ID (PCI) and their own SSB or a group
5G. Reusing the sample beam layout presented in Fig. 2, the of them can join to represent a cell using one common PCI
maximum TA difference for the users in the coverage area [8]. In this case each beam will still transmit its own SSB and
of each beam is presented in Fig. 3. Accordingly, the results the situation will resemble a multibeam gNB. Currently, the
show that the maximum TA difference is experienced in the maximum number of beams that can be supported in each
outer beams where the footprint of the beams expands and gNB are 4, 8 or 64 in frequency range 1 (FR1), frequency
in our example, the values are less than 0.7 ms. Therefore, range 2 (FR2) and mm-wave frequency ranges, respectively.
to be able to perform TA adjustments during initial access, So, an antenna capable of generating multiple beams should
only 15 kHz and 30 kHz numerologies can be reused and for divide its beams between multiple instances of gNB to meet
higher numerologies, the beam size should be reduced. the 5G designs for multi-beam cases.
Apart from initial TA adjustments, the network attempts
to keep the TA value in the correct region by sending B. PAGING AND RANDOM ACCESS PROCEDURES
the TA command during the UE connection period (RRC-
Paging and random access are two important control plane
connected). Again the maximum TA adjustment or refine-
procedures that should be studied under NTN conditions.
ment depends on the Numerology used in the NR and should
Studying their capacity and limitations will also give insight
be kept in acceptable regions [8]. Our simulations for differ-
into the supportable user density in NTNs. When there is
ent constellation parameters show that 5G NR will not face
waiting data for an idle user in the network, the user will be
restrictions in TA tracking in NTN.
paged. In 5G, a paging message is sent in paging occasions
Some designs propose to use different beams for the
(PO) which occurs in a paging frame. In a non-multibeam
control-plane and user-plane of the network. A wider beam
scenario at most 4 out of 10 subframes can be used for paging
with large coverage transmits the SSB and broadcasts other
and a paging message can at most include 32 paging records.
necessary information to the users. Then a narrow beam will
Each paging record will include the UE identity of the user
be directed towards UEs to serve them for data transmission.
being paged. Therefore, the maximum number of UE that can
We should note that in this design, the doppler and TA pre-
be paged in a second is calculated as:
compensation performance would be limited due to the large
footprint of the wide beam. Also, the location of the users
should be available at the gNB to perform the beamforming
towards the UEs. This design will further impose restrictions Paging capacity = NP F × NP OperP F × NU EperP O . (1)

VOLUME 1, 2021 5
 Author et al.: Preparation of Papers for IEEE TRANSACTIONS and JOURNALS

60
0.7
r = 25 Km
maximum TA difference whithin each beam (msec)

r = 50 Km
50 r = 100 Km

Number of beams required to cover

0.6

0.5 40

0.4
30

0.3
20
0.2

10
0.1

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Beam Number Tracking Area radius (Km)

FIGURE 3. Maximum TA difference between users in each beam

FIGURE 4. Average number of required beams to cover a location area

where NP F is the number of paging frames, NP OperP F γ

is the number of paging occasions in each frame and Pcollision = 1 − e− M . (2)

NU EperP O is the number of paging records in each PO. The Where M is the number of access opportunities per sec-
maximum for NP F is 100 per second and this implies that the ond and γ is the random-access arrival rate per second. To
maximum paging capacity would be 100 × 4 × 32 = 12800 maintain a high quality of service usually Pcollision is kept as
per second. This capacity is calculated for a single beam. low as 1%. The value of γ is dependent on some of the other
Usually, the paging message is transmitted in the whole parameters in the system. The number of users that have been
tracking area where a user is camping and this information is paged and are trying to access the network and the number of
obtained according to the location area information available users that try to initiate a connection are the main contributors
in Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) in 5G to γ. In a terrestrial 5G networks M depends on the network
core. Therefore, the real paging capacity of each satellite parameters including the frequency range, PRACH configu-
depends on the number of beams which is required to fill a ration index, format of preamble, frequency multiplexing for
tracking area region. In a fixed beam scenario, the number the PRACH occasions, and number of PRACH opportunities
of beams required to cover a tracking area is not a fixed per second [8]. The maximum for M is achieved with 56
value and changes as the location and coverage area of each possible preambles, setting frequency multiplexing equal to
satellite change. Fig. 4 shows the average number of beams 8 and 1000 PRACH opportunities per second which leads
required to cover a tracking area with different radius. To to 448000 available PRACH opportunities per second per
generate this figure, we have used the same settings described cell. Using (2) and setting Pcollision = 0.01 we can calculate
in the synchronization section and we have considered a the maximum random-access arrival rate equal to 4500 re-
circular tracking area with different radius. Then we have quests/sec which is less than the calculated maximum paging
calculated the average number of required beams over time capacity of each cell. Therefore, in our example, PRACH
to cover the tracking area. By increasing the nadir beam capacity is the dominant factor that determines the maximum
radius, the average number of beams required for paging will capacity of each cell.
decrease but at the same time, the number of cells or beams The gNB needs to wait until it receives the transmitted
of each satellite will also decrease which will reduce the total preambles of all users before processing them. Due to the
paging capacity. According to this figure, for a tracking area large delay differences between users in an NTN cell, this
with an average radius of 50 Km, on average we need 4 beams may take longer than usual. This is shown in Fig. 5 where
to perform the paging for each user. Clearly there would be a the time difference between the reception of the nearest user
success probability for each round of paging that will reduce and further users is twice the delay difference of the users
the final paging capacity of the network. and spans the reception window of the gNB. This imposes a
Each user that is paged needs to go through the random restriction on the number of available PRACH opportunities
access procedure to initiate any connection. In 5G, the phys- in the network. Referring to our example and beam layout
ical random access channel (PRACH) is based on a slotted presented in Fig. 2 and TA difference values presented in Fig.
Aloha random access scheme. Therefore, the probability 3, we have 85 beams (cells) in the antenna coverage region
of collision between contending users trying to access the where the available paging opportunities in the outer ring
network is calculated as: which has 24 beams, is at most 500 rather than the maximum
6 VOLUME 1, 2021
Author et al.: Preparation of Papers for IEEE TRANSACTIONS and JOURNALS

broadcast and in case this code is changed will inform the

network for the TAU. As in terrestrial networks, there is a
trade-off between the tracking area size and the paging load
in the system. Large tracking areas will reduce the TAU
request loads but at the same time will reduce the paging
capacity of the network, since the paging signal should be
transmitted through multiple beams covering the paging area.
In a fixed tracking area scenario, the TAU signaling load is
dependent on the velocity distribution of the users. Users with
higher speeds will generate more TAU signaling load since
they tend to change their tracking area more frequently. On
the other hand, the paging load for each region is dependent
FIGURE 5. PRACH preamble reception timing
on the user density and their call-rates. Call-rate refers to
the number of times that the network needs to page a UE
for a specific purpose e.g. data waiting to be transmitted to
of 1000, which is available in the remaining cells. This the UE or even TAU request triggered by the network. To
reduces the maximum random-access arrival rate to 2500 give an estimate of optimized tracking area sizes in NTN,
requests/s in these cells which compared to 4500 requests/s, we have evaluated the TAU and paging signaling loads in a
is 44% less. network. In this simulation, the satellites orbits are polar with
To give a rough estimate of the maximum paging oppor- an inclination angle of 86◦ and the height is set to 800 Km.
tunities provided by each satellite in our example, we can There are 18 planes in the network and 36 satellites equally
have 61 cells with a maximum paging capacity of 4500 UE/s spaced in each plane. The antenna settings are the same as
and 24 cells with the capacity of 2500 UE/s which sum up in Fig. 2. The compromise between TAU signaling load and
to 334500 paging/s. Dividing by the coverage area of each paging signaling load has been shown in Fig. 6.
satellite, the maximum user density that can be supported To generate the results we have assumed that there are
by each satellite would be ≈ 0.3 user/km2 . Also considering 4 different categories of user speeds i.e. fixed, low-speed,
the effect of location area size with a radius of 50 km, the medium-speed and high-speed users. For each category, a
supported density will further decrease to ≈ 0.1 user/km2 . Normal distribution for the speed of users is considered. The
low speed velocities are modeled as N (5, 3), the medium
C. PAGING AND TRACKING AREA MANAGEMENT speed with N (70, 30) and high-speed with N (250, 100). The
In terrestrial networks, the tracking area is a set of adjacent user density has been set to 20 users per km2 . For scenario 1,
cells that defines the perception of the core network from the users’ combination is set to be 50% fixed users, 30% low-
the possible location of the UE. When there is a need for speed, 15% medium-speed and 5% high-speed. For scenario
paging a UE e.g. network has data waiting to be transmitted 2, these ratios are changed to 30%, 30%, 30%, and 10%
to the UE, the paging signal will be sent out to all the cells respectively. For each scenario the effect of two different
comprising the tracking area. To keep the network update call-rates has been shown. The results imply that for each
about the location of each UE, when the tracking area of a scenario there is an optimal tracking area size that minimizes
user is changed due to the movement of the user, there is a the total signaling load of the network. With higher call-
need to update the tracking area. There is a trade-off between rates, the choice of the proper tracking area size becomes
the size of the location area and the number of cells that more important and deviating from the optimal values will
paging signals should be transmitted. Smaller tracking areas significantly affect the total signalling load of the network.
will reduce the paging load, while larger tracking areas will
reduce the need for frequent Tracking Area Update (TAU) D. HANDOVER CHALLENGES
signaling which is more signaling-intensive compared to the Providing a reliable and seamless connection for the users in
paging procedure. non-terrestrial networks, especially when we are dealing with
The tracking areas can be defined as fixed or moving with fast-moving LEO satellites is another challenge in the NTN.
the beams. In non-terrestrial networks with moving cells The signaling load, service interruption time, and handover
and moving tracking areas, even fixed users need to update success rate should be carefully analyzed. Depending on the
their tracking area information frequently which will lead payload type, antenna beam type, and how we define a cell
to extreme signaling loads that is difficult to be handled by in the network, we can have different types of handover. In a
the network. A more practical solution is to consider fixed network with steerable antennas, mostly the handover is only
tracking areas on the ground. In this case, the Tracking Area needed when UE has to switch to another satellite and this is
Code (TAC) transmitted by the gNB will be dependent on due to the limited coverage of the serving satellites. This type
the location of the satellite. For example in satellites with of handover is usually referred to as inter-satellite handover.
regenerative payloads, the TAC should be changed according When using satellites with fixed beam antennas, entering
to their coverage region. The UE will listen to the TAC every new beam, the UE may need to perform a handover.
VOLUME 1, 2021 7
 Author et al.: Preparation of Papers for IEEE TRANSACTIONS and JOURNALS

105
or multiple gNBs, they are co-located and handover can be
performed quite fast. The data transfer between possible gNB
scenario 1, call rate: 1/Hour
scenario 1, call rate: 10 /Hour
will not occupy any network capacity. In the case where one
Paging + TAU load (messages/Sec)

2.5 gNB is controlling multiple beams, the handover would be

scenario 2, call rate: 1 /Hour
scenario 2, call rate: 10 /Hour local and there is no need to send any request to the AMF and
2 core network. Note that in the transparent case, beams that
are connected to the gateway can belong to multiple satellites.
1.5
In a network with regenerative satellites, gNBs can be
implemented on the satellites. Assuming a fixed beam sce-
nario, intra-satellite handover is easy and does not need to
1 go through the gateways but the inter-satellite handover is
more complicated. To perform the handover, the source and
0.5 target gNBs should exchange control data. The control signal
exchange will go through the ISL if available, otherwise they
0
should go through a common gateway which will increase
0 50 100 150 200 250 the delay. Therefore, the handover usually takes place be-
Tracking Area Radius (km) tween satellites that have ISL in between. For example in
FIGURE 6. Total signaling load for paging and TAU procedures for different a constellation with inclined orbit satellites, the handover
scenarios. often happens between satellites that are all ascending or de-
scending (because usually there is no ISL between ascending
or descending satellites). Also note that to transfer UE data
This type of handover is called intra-satellite handover. We from the source to destination gNBs, ISL capacity should
can also have another type of handover called inter-network be utilized. However, the RTT in regenerative payloads is
handover which occurs when switching between two differ- shorter compared to the transparent payloads.
ent networks where at least one of them is NTN. From the network point of view, the number of handovers
Before diving into the handover details, it is worth taking a in the network that should be handled is important. The han-
look at the handover procedure in 5G [19]. The conventional dover rate not only depends on the constellation and antenna
method of handover in 5G is a hard handover where the parameters, but also depends on the connection duration.
connection with the source gNB is broken before making the For example, we do not expect that IoT devices will ever
new connection with the Target gNB. In terrestrial networks need to perform a handover because their connection duration
due to the short round trip times (RTT), this will not impose is usually very short in time. On the other hand, for any
any significant issue to the network. However, in NTNs the long connection, we should perform handovers every few
RTT is not negligible, thus the procedure should be assessed minutes. The handover can be triggered by signal strength
carefully. The user will send the report of its received power measurements. A conventional method is to use a threshold
from different satellites to its serving (source) gNB and the and compare the received signals from different satellites. In
gNB will decide when to initiate the handover for each UE. NTNs we may use location information to initiate handovers.
To perform the handover, the source gNB will first send a Other parameters such as angle of the users and TA values
request to the target gNB. The target gNB will perform the or doppler values may also be exploited as indicators for
admission and respond to the source gNB. The source gNB handover time. For example, if the TA value exceeds a
will inform the UE to initiate the handover. As the gNB predefined value, the handover can be triggered. The location
receives the handover acknowledgment from the target gNB, of GWs and the need for feeder link handover also have their
the downlink data transmission to the UE will be terminated own impact on the handover rate.
and after the UE receives the handover initiation command In situations where satellites need to perform a feeder link
from the source gNB it will stop uplink transmission. Then handover, some of the connections may need to perform
the UE will go through a random access procedure to connect the handover prior to any handover requests triggered by
to the target gNB using a 4-step RACH procedure which will other methods. Note that satellites are usually able to connect
take at least 2 RTTs. During the time that the source gNB to multiple GWs at the same time and therefore, only a
has stopped the downlink transmission, it will forward the portion of users may be forced to handover in the case of
downlink data of the user to the target gNB where the data satellite feeder link handover. Also, it is worth mentioning
will be buffered until the connection with the UE has been that there is no fundamental difference between inter-satellite
established. Upon completing the handover procedure, the handover rate for transparent and regenerative payloads and
target gNB will send a request to the core network to update the handover rate will be the same for both.
the UPF anchor point. For the UE with directional antennas, the handover re-
In a network with transparent satellites, gNBs are imple- quires more considerations. The user should be able to
mented at the gateways. Therefore, regardless of whether monitor the received signal from other satellites while being
there is one gNB responsible for all the beams of the satellite connected to the serving satellite. If the antenna can have
8 VOLUME 1, 2021
Author et al.: Preparation of Papers for IEEE TRANSACTIONS and JOURNALS

level issues to be addressed. In this paper, we have reviewed

0.014
some of these challenges and some limitations have been
demonstrated in practical 5G satellite networks through our
0.012
simulation-based assessments. In particular, we have shown
that each beam’s coverage area should be deliberately con-
Handover rate per user, (1/sec)

0.01
fined to meet the CFO requirements in standard 5G devices.
0.008
We have shown the impact of NTNs on the paging and
random access procedures in 5G and we have analysed how
0.006
these procedures interact to limit the user capacity of the
network as well as how they interact with tracking area
0.004 Lat = 0, V = 0 Km/sec sizes to keep the signaling load minimum. Also, handover
Lat = 0, V = 1000 Km/sec
Lat = 40, V = 0 Km/sec procedure in NTN is reviewed and practical handover rates
0.002 Lat = 40, V = 1000 Km/sec in LEO constellations and their dependency on the location
Lat = 60, V = 0 Km/sec
Lat = 60, V = 1000 Km/sec of the users are evaluated.
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Connection duration (sec) REFERENCES
FIGURE 7. Empirical handover rate for users with different speed and [1] K. Bahia and S. Suardi, "The state of mobile In-
locations ternet connectivity 2019", Jul. 2019, [online] Avail-
able: https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-
content/uploads/2019/07/GSMA-State-of-Mobile-Internet-Connectivity-
Report-2019.pdf
only one beam i.e. dish antennas, then usually the UE can [2] Study on Using Satellite Access in 5G, document TR 22.822, Release 16,
not have information about the received signal strength from 3GPP, Jun. 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.3gpp.org/
other visible satellites. As a result, user terminals with array [3] Study on New Radio (NR) to Support Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN),
document TR 38.811, Release 15, 3GPP, Oct 2019. [Online]. Available:
antennas and capable of generating multiple beams are more https://www.3gpp.org/
applicable in these scenarios. Knowing the ephemeris of [4] H2020-ICT-2014-1 Project VITAL, Deliverable D2.3, “System architec-
the satellites in the network will help to shape the beam ture: Final report,” Jun. 2016.
[5] H2020-ICT-2014-1 Project SANSA, Deliverable D2.3, “Definition of
towards the best directions and listen to other satellites more reference scenarios, overall system architectures, research challenges,
intelligently. requirements and KPIs,” Jan. 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.sansa-
In Fig. 7 the average handover rate for the users in a NTN h2020.eu/deliverables
is shown. The payload type in this simulation is transparent [6] S. Min, Engineering Design and Application of Satellite Communication
System, Publishing House of Electronics Industry, 2015.
and the satellites’ orbits are polar with an inclination angle of [7] I. del Portillo, B. G. Cameron, and E. F. Crawley, “A technical comparison
86◦ and the height is set to 800 km. There are 18 planes in the of three low earth orbit satellite constellation systems to provide global
constellation and there are 36 satellites equally spaced in each broadband,” Acta Astronautica, vol. 159, pp. 123–135, Jun. 2019
[8] Solutions for NR to Support Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN), docu-
plane. The handover rate is calculated using simulation for ment TR 38.821, Release 16, 3GPP, Jan 2020. [Online]. Available:
different connection periods and for different users speeds. https://www.3gpp.org/
The first observation is that the users’ speed can be ignored [9] SATis5. Demonstrator for Satellite-Terrestrial Integration in the 5G Con-
mainly due to the high speed of the satellites and there is no text. 2018. Available online: https://satis5.eurescom.eu/ (accessed on 20
February 2019).
much difference between handover rates for users with 1000 [10] A. Guidotti et al., “Architectures and key technical challenges for 5G
km and 0 km speed. The second observation is that at higher systems incorporating satellites,” IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., vol. 68, no.
latitudes, the hand over rate is slightly increased mainly due 3, pp. 2624–2639, Mar. 2019.
[11] WorldVu Satellites Limited, OneWeb Ka-band NGSO con-
to the fact that satellites get closer to each other in polar orbits stellation FCC filing SAT-LOI-20160428-00041, Available at:
and there are more overlaps between footprints of adjacent http://licensing.fcc.gov/myibfs/
satellites. The third observation is that as the connection du- [12] M. Handley, “Using ground relays for low-latency wide-area routing in
mega constellations,” in Proc. ACM Workshop Hot Topics Netw. (HotNets),
ration goes beyond 300 s, the average handover rate reaches 2019, pp. 125–132
its maximum. It can be observed from this figure that for [13] NG-RAN, document TS 38.401, Release 15, 3GPP, Jul. 2019. [Online].
example for the users located in +40◦ latitude, the average Available: https://www.3gpp.org/
handover rate for long connection duration is approximately [14] L. You, K. -X. Li, J Wang, X. Gao, X. -G. Xia and B. Ottersten,
"Massive MIMO Transmission for LEO Satellite Communications," in
0.0085 handovers per second per user or equivalently the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 38, no. 8, pp.
average time between each handover is about 117.6 seconds. 1851-1865, Aug. 2020, doi: 10.1109/JSAC.2020.3000803.
[15] Space Exploration Holdings, LLC, SpaceX Ka-band NGSO
constellation FCC filing SAT-LOA-20161115-00118, Available
IV. CONCLUSION at: http://licensing.fcc.gov/myibfs/forwardtopublictabaction.do?file_
Non-terrestrial networks will be an indispensable part of the number=SATLOA2016111500118 (2018/09/12).
future networks and several use cases for NTNs have been [16] Telesat Canada, Telesat Ka-band NGSO constellation FCC filing SAT-
PDR-20161115-00108, Available at: https://fcc.report/IBFS/SAT-PDR-
envisioned. However, adopting the existing 5G technology
20161115-00108.
to be used in NTNs and especially in satellite-based NTNs [17] NR; Physical channels and modulation, document TS 38.211, Release 15,
is challenging and there are several system-level and link- 3GPP, Sept. 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.3gpp.org/

VOLUME 1, 2021 9
 Author et al.: Preparation of Papers for IEEE TRANSACTIONS and JOURNALS

[18] H.-L. Maattanen, B. Hofstrom, S. Euler, J. Sedin, X. Lin, O. Liberg, RUILIANG SONG received his B.E. and Ph.D.
G. Masini, and M. Israelsson, "5G NR communication over GEO or LEO degrees in microelectronics and solid state elec-
satellite systems: 3GPP RAN higher layer standardization aspects," in tronics from Tianjin University, Tianjin, P.R.
Proc. IEEE Global Commun. Conf. (GLOBECOM), Dec. 2019, pp. 1–6. China in 2006 and 2009, respectively. From 2009-
[19] NR; NR and NG-RAN Overall Description; Stage2, document TS 38.300, 2011, he worked as post-doctor research fellow
Release 15, 3GPP, Jun 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.3gpp.org/ with Laboratory of CIGS Thin Film Solar Cells,
Institute of Optoelectronic Thin Film Devices
and Technology, Nankai University, Tianjin, P.R.
China. Since 2011, he has been a senior engineer
with Beijing RD Center, the 54th Research insti-
tute of China Electronics Technology Group (CETC), Beijing, P.R. China.
His current research interests include space terahertz communication system,
ATA SATTARZADEH received the B.S. degree in terahertz devices and high data rate transmission in 6G application.
electrical engineering from the K.N.T University
of Technology, the M.S. degree in Telecommu-
nications from the IUST, and Ph.D. in Telecom-
munications from University of Tehran, Iran in
2013. He is currently a research fellow with the
5G and 6G Innovation Centre (6GIC), Institute
for Communication Systems, University of Surrey.
His research experience includes 5G networks,
satellite communications, multiuser MIMO, and
signal processing.

PEI XIAO is a professor of Wireless Communica-

tions at the Institute for Communication Systems,
home of 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC) at the Uni-
versity of Surrey. He is the technical manager of
YUN LIU was born in Heze, Shandong Province, 5GIC, leading the research team in the new phys-
China, in 1983. She received the Ph.D. degree in ical layer work area, and coordinating/supervising
communication and information engineering from research activities across all the work areas within
University of Electronic Science and Technology 5GIC (www.surrey.ac.uk/5gic/research). Prior to
of China (UESTC), in 2013. She is currently a this, he worked at Newcastle University and
senior engineer of communication and networking Queen’s University Belfast. He also held positions
at Beijing RD Center, the 54th Research institute at Nokia Networks in Finland. He has published extensively in the fields
of China Electronics Technology Group (CETC). of communication theory, RF and antenna design, signal processing for
Her research interests concern 5G 6G wireless wireless communications, and is an inventor on over 10 recent 5GIC patents
communication theory and satellite mobile com- addressing bottleneck problems in 5G systems.
munication, including OFDM technologies, Massive MIMO technology,
cognitive radio spectrum sensing technology and resource allocation and 5G
non terrestrial networks technology and applications.

ABDELRAHIM MOHAMED received the B.Sc.

degree (First Class) in electrical and electronics
engineering from the University of Khartoum, Su-
dan, in 2011, the M.Sc. degree (Distinction) in mo- ZHIQUN SONG received his M.S. degree in
bile and satellite communications, and the Ph.D. the communication and information system from
degree in electronics engineering from the Uni- the former research institute of communication
versity of Surrey, U.K., in 2013 and 2016, respec- measurement and control technology under the
tively. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fel- ministry of electronic industry, in 1985. He is
low with the 5G Innovation Center(5GIC), U.K. currently the chief scientist in the field of commu-
He is currently involved in the RRM, MAC, and nication and transmission of the China Electronics
RAN Management work area, and the New Physical Layer work area in Technology Group Co., Ltd., and the chief engi-
the 5GIC. He worked on multiple projects, including Energy Proportional neer of China Electronics Network Communica-
eNB for LTE-Advanced and Beyond, U.K. DCMS Planning Tool for 5G tion Group Co., Ltd. He is a member of the IMT-
Network in mm-wave Band Project, EPSRC Stepping Toward the Industrial 2020 (5G) promotion group under the Ministry of Industry and Information
Sixth Sense, and 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks in parallel to working on the Technology of China. He has made in-depth research in special com-
development of the 5G System Level Simulator. His main areas of research munication system, anti-jamming communication, mobile communication
interest include radio access network design, system-level simulations and and cognitive radio. Now his current research interests include 5G private
analysis, mobility management, energy efficiency and cognitive radio. He network communication and 6G communication. He has won seven national,
was a recipient of the Sentinels of Science 2016 Award. He secured the provincial and ministerial science and technology awards including the
first place and top ranked in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering national science and technology progress award. He has published over
Department, University of Surrey, U.K. during his M.Sc. studies. 20 papers in journals and refereed conference proceedings in those areas
and has published a monograph on the cognitive radio technology and
applications.

10 VOLUME 1, 2021
Author et al.: Preparation of Papers for IEEE TRANSACTIONS and JOURNALS

HAIPENG ZHANG received his B. Eng. Degree

in automation from University of Science and
Technology of China, China in 2009, and his Ph. D
degree in School of Information Science and Tech-
nology, University of Science and Technology of
China in 2014. He is currently a senior engineer
of communication and networking at Beijing RD
Center, the 54th Research institute of China Elec-
tronics Technology Group CETC. His research in-
terests include ambient energy harvesting, internet
of things, and satellite networking.

RAHIM TAFAZOLLI is currently a Regius Pro-

fessor of Electronic Engineering, a Fellow of the
Royal Academy of Engineering, (FREng), FIET,
and WWRF, a Professor of Mobile and Satellite
Communications, and the Founder and Director
of 5GIC, 6GIC, and Institute for Communication
System (ICS), University of Surrey. He has over
30 years of experience in digital communications
research and teaching. He was an Advisor at the
Mayor of London in regard to the London Infras-
tructure Investment 2050 Plan. He has given many interviews to international
media in the form of television, radio interviews, and articles in international
press. He has authored and co-authored more than 1000 research publi-
cations. He is regularly invited to deliver keynote talks and distinguished
lectures to international conferences and workshops. He is regularly invited
by many governments for advice on 5G technologies.

CHUANFENG NIU was born in in Heze,Shandong

province, P. R. China. He received the B.S. in
electromagnetic and microwave technology from
University of Electronic Science and Technology
of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China, in 1998,
the M.S. in electronic engineering from Xidian
University, Xi’an, China, in 2005. Since 1998, he
has been worked in the 54th Research Institute
of China Electronics Technology Group (CETC),
Shijiazhuang of China, now he is a research
professor. His work is focused on the array antenna systems for satellite
communication. His research interests include phased array antenna systems
and wideband feed. He published more than 20 contributory papers in
referred journals and international conference proceedings.

VOLUME 1, 2021 11