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Network Infrastructure Magazine | Tuesday, May 02, 2023
With new standards and industry investment, satellite communication brings benefits; satellite communications will aid the wireless industry's aims in various ways.
FREMONT, CA: Space, or non-terrestrial networks, dominate the wireless business (NTNs). Smartphones, mobile electronics, and IoT devices can now directly communicate with satellites using two new 3GPP Release 17 protocols. Satellites have long been a part of the wireless communications infrastructure, but until recently, they mainly provided backhaul network connectivity to cumbersome satellite phones and emergency equipment. Direct satellite connections with mobile devices will aid in bridging the gaps between terrestrial cellular networks. It provides a genuinely global infrastructure that can leverage by various sectors. It bridges the digital divide by extending wireless communications to rural areas that frequently lack infrastructure, despite the presence of 5G cellular networks.
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While the industry is long past 3G and new generations of cellular technology get introduced every ten years, new releases of the 3GPP standards are produced every two years within a generation to improve radio spectrum efficiency. The standards also stimulate spectrum freeing, new radio access networks (RANs), new encryption technology, faster network performance, spectrum aggregation from different carriers and wireless technologies, support for additional use cases, and novel network topologies. The 3GPP organization improves wireless technology with each generation and provides a worldwide network accessible from any device. Satellite networks, or NTNs, will enable a global network.
Satellite networks are costly to launch and maintain. Signals to and from space require more power than between terrestrial towers. Satellite communications will become another smooth but crucial global cellular communication line. For messaging and other low-bandwidth consumer and embedded or IoT applications, including location tracking, asset tracking, and sensor monitoring, the IoT-NTN standard uses a 200KHz channel. IoT-NTN data speeds are comparable to 2G, and basic data connectivity gets provided. Satellite communications will be a bonus for the first NTN support generation. Version 18, 5G Advanced, would improve Network communications by aggregating frequency channels like carrier and Wi-Fi.
Cellular signals are not available everywhere. Tall buildings, motorway sound walls, and the two-meter space between cell towers generate service gaps even in locations with good cellular coverage. Because of the earth's topography and fewer cell towers, coverage lapses grow when people leave cities or dense metropolitan regions. Because topology limits comprehensive area coverage, serving places with fewer people is less profitable. Cellular coverage is often years or decades behind in rural locations, as direct satellite communication has benefits beyond mobile devices despite these obstacles. Global data infrastructure is a benefit. Connectivity is essential for information flow and software updates in hybrid computing with the cloud and autonomous equipment.
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