Program

By NTN Days 2024

  • Les sessions se dérouleront dans l’amphi Frances Allen C002.
  • Les pauses et buffets auront lieu dans l’espace coworking à proximité.

Jeudi 17 octobre 2024

9h30 Accueil et café
Espace coworking
9h50 Ouverture des journées
Amphi Frances Allen C002
10h Session 1 : Routing – Chair : Riadh Dhaou
11h Session 2 : 5G 6G – Chair : Rahim Kacimi
12h Buffet
Espace coworking
14h Session 3 : Spectrum / Signal – Chair : Oana Iova
15h Session 4 : LoRa – Chair : Oana Iova
16h Pause rafraichissements + Posters
16h30 Open discussion
Experimentation with NTNs: drones, HAPS, balloons, LEO CubeSats…
We will open the discussion with short presentations and feedback on experiments with NTN, covering the types of experiments, the challenges faced, and the costs involved.
We will extend the discussion to the setup of shared platforms for experimentation, how to experiment wisely at a reasonable cost (both financially and ecologically), and what is the relation to SLICES-RI/FR.
18h Pot d’accueil
Vin & fromage

Vendredi 18 octobre 2024

9h Panel – Chair : Juan Fraire
Regulatory Challenges of LEO Satellites and NTN Deployment
Panelists: Didier Donsez, Benoit Ponsard, and Vincent Deslandes
  • Spectrum management and allocation challenges
  • Orbital slot regulation and space debris mitigation
  • International coordination and harmonization of regulations
  • Licensing and compliance for satellite operators
  • Environmental sustainability and space debris concerns
10h Pause café + Posters
10h30 Session 5 : Satellite Internet – Chair : Nicola Accettura
12h Buffet
Espace coworking
14h
Clôture des journées

Abstracts

Bridging Lower Layer Challenges and Innovations Across 5G Connectivity and Emerging Technologies for Direct-to-Smartphone Commun

Author: Hannah B. Pasandi (Inria Lyon), Juan Fraire (Inria Lyon), Sylvia Ratnasamy (UC Berkeley), Hervé Rivano (Inria, INSA Lyon) In this talk, I will explore the role of Direct-to-Smartphone technology across 4G, 5G, and the forthcoming 6G networks, focusing on current advancements and future potentials. Firstly, I discuss the technical challenges of integrating this technology with existing 4G and 5G infrastructure, particularly addressing the difficulties posed by the high-dynamic environment of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. These challenges include maintaining signal continuity, managing Doppler effects, and high-performance antennas to close the link budget to the satellite from smartphones. I then examine the current solutions, such as advanced air interface systems. Additionally, I highlight innovative antenna designs, including conformal and phased-array antennas, which improve the reliability and efficiency of Direct-to-Smartphone communications. Moreover, I will address key enabling technologies, such as ultra-large array antennas and AI-driven beamforming techniques, which are crucial for optimizing the use of limited spectrum and ensuring the scalability of these services across different generations of mobile networks. By providing a comprehensive overview of these advancements, I aim to demonstrate how Direct-to-Smartphone technology is evolving to meet the demands of 4G and 5G while laying the groundwork for seamless 6G connectivity.

Formes d’onde QCSP pour l’IoT par satellite

Dans le cadre du projet de recherche CNES entre KINEIS, UBS et le CEA, nous avons défini des algorithmes de réception de nouvelles trames IoT pour des satellites LEO (trames QCSP qui se caractérisent par leur absence de préambule). Les études théoriques montrent qu’il est possible de transmettre de petits paquets (200 bits d’information) sans synchronisation préalable, ni coordination, avec une très bonne efficacité spectrale agrégée (jusqu’à 2 bits/Hz/s en supposant une synchronisation parfaite avec des algorithmes de type Successive Interférence Cancellation). Des expérimentations de transmissions réelles entre des cartes GNU radio dispersées entre la France et la Suisse et un satellite LEO confirment expérimentalement la possibilité d’utiliser les trames QCSP dans un contexte spatial. Finalement, le projet ANR 2024 WARM-M2M (partenaires Thales SIX, NOKIA, INSA-Lyon et UBS) autour des formes d’ondes et protocoles pour l’IoT par satellite (démarrage prévue en novembre 2024) sera présenté.

On the Role of Machine Learning in Satellite Internet of Things: A Survey of Techniques, Challenges, and Future Directions

The drive towards an interconnected world via satellites is transforming communication technologies. This survey comprehensively reviews studies in the Satellite Internet of Things (SIoT) domain, focusing on the role of Machine Learning (ML) techniques. The extensive data generation in SIoT systems is well-suited for data-intensive and sophisticated ML approaches. We highlight the innovative use of ML to address specific SIoT challenges, aiming to identify current trends, methodologies, and results. We considered theoretical, practical, and experimental research, organizing existing publications into a new taxonomy that intersects ML and SIoT categories. Our taxonomy reveals that Deep Learning (DL), Reinforcement Learning (RL), and Federated Learning (FL) are widely applied to address radio access schemes, resource and network management, and application- specific issues. This survey identifies critical gaps in current research on ML applications in SIoT, such as the lack of differentiation between space-based and ground-based processing, insufficient integration of SIoT-specific metrics, and the oversight of limited computational resources on orbiting satellites. These issues raise concerns about the feasibility and efficiency of proposed solutions. Based on our findings, we suggest promising research directions to enhance collaboration between ML researchers and the SIoT industry.

Routing in All Optical LEO Constellations with High-Altitude Ground Stations

The amount of data that needs to travel from space to Earth continues to grow, and the desire to enable all-optical connectivity in an Earth-to-space network presents many challenges that must be overcome. A new architecture has been developed, showing promising results, including the High-Altitude Ground Station (HAGS). The duality of this network, which brings new challenges to the routing protocols, will be discussed during the talk. We then developed new heuristics to facilitate routing in these networks to achieve better performance. To compare them, we finally model the network with Markov Decision Processes (MDP) to find the near-optimal solution to our routing problem.

Enhanced Custody Transfer and Status Reporting for Delay Tolerant Space Networks

Authors: Alice Le Bihan (INSA Lyon), Juan Fraire (Inria), Felix Flentge (ESA) As space missions increase, there’s a growing need for efficient, network-centric communication to replace traditional point-to-point methods. Disruption/Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) with the Bundle Protocol (BP) is considered as the future internetworking protocol for space, particularly in the LunaNet Interoperability Specification and for future Mars and Earth Observation missions. Given the challenges of intermittent connectivity and long delays in DTNs, reliable data transfer mechanisms are essential. This presentation will introduce a new custody transfer mechanism for Bundle Protocol Version 7 (BPv7), which will be published as an experimental specification by CCSDS in 2025. Unlike its predecessor, BPv6, which included a custody transfer mechanism, BPv7 requires a separate extension for reliable delivery. Our proposed solution introduces a) an efficient method for identifying sets of bundles using sequence numbering, b) a new Custody Transfer Extension Block with a Compressed Custody Signal for efficient reporting on custody acceptance or rejection, and c) a Compressed Reporting Extension Block with a Compressed Reporting Signal for status reporting on bundle reception, deletion, forwarding, and delivery. These mechanisms have been prototyped in ESA’s BP implementation and considered for Earth Observation, Lunar, and Mars scenarios. This talk details the design, specification, implementation, and emulation results, providing insights into future developments in DTN reliability.

Radio frequencies for satellite IoT: a regulation loophole?

Although SRD/ISM frequencies are not intended for satellite communications, several recent experiment have shown that it is possible to receive 25mW transmissions from common IoT device transmission on LEO satellites. The talk will present current regulations of SRD/ISM radio spectrum and will show how European spectrum agencies are addressing this new usage.

Towards optimizing LoRaWAN for Direct-to-Satellite IoT Satellite Constellations with Throughput Modeling and Space-Network Simulation

The emerging paradigm of Direct-to-Satellite Internet of Things (DtS-IoT) is ushering in a new era of global IoT connectivity through gateways in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO). Among the various technologies for achieving DtS-IoT, LoRaWAN stands out as a promising candidate. It utilizes duty-cycled ALOHA channel access over unlicensed bands and has already seen broad adoption in terrestrial IoT applications, facilitating seamless Space-Terrestrial IoT integration. A key feature of LoRaWAN is its ability to allow multiple gateways to receive uplink packets simultaneously, making it particularly suitable for DtS-IoT constellations that use multiple satellites. However, existing theoretical throughput models for static multi-gateway LoRaWAN systems have not yet been evaluated in the more complex and dynamic satellite context. Our work is two fold: addressing this gap by adapting, extending, and fine-tuning these throughput models for the multi-gateway LEO DtS-IoT scenario, and designing a space-network simulator that validates its results using well-known astrodynamic models. This work will enable the rapid analysis of various LoRaWAN constellations to optimize their performance, meeting a critical need in current DtS-IoT mission design and operations.

Be the (Route) Change

Satellite networks are known to be highly dynamic, due to their closeness to earth and high speeds. At the same time, these dynamics are also highly predictable. In the state of the art, this leads to frequent route changes which are detrimental for change-agnostic end-to-end connections. This talk will shed more light on these two initial observations and shows what results for both routing as well as congestion control—two central network functions that determine the end-to-end performance of Internet traffic. Finally, details are given on a work-in-progress formalization of route changes as well as an OS-level simulation tool.

Non-Terrestrial Disaggregated RAN: Prospective Architectures and Performance Insights

Opening the Radio Access Network is crucial for enhancing the flexibility, scalability, and vendor interoperability, which are essential for advancing 5G and future 6G networks. Integrating ORAN with non-terrestrial networks, such as satellites, is becoming increasingly important for 6G development and for seamless integration with terrestrial 5G networks. However, deploying ORAN units in space and managing the extensive distances in space-to-ground communications pose significant challenges due to the limited capabilities of satellites and the reliability of these communication links. In this presentation, I will envision and compare various scenarios for deploying ORAN units and propose a combined FSO/RF communication method to enhance link reliability, particularly for ground-to-space links susceptible to atmospheric turbulence. This hybrid approach, coupled with terrestrial and non-terrestrial multi-connectivity, aims to improve link availability and ensure consistent service in non-terrestrial network setups.

Integration of NTN/5G for Connected Livestock Transport (COMMECT project)

COMMECT project (Horizon Europe) aims at bridging the digital divide, by providing quality, reliable, and secure access for all in rural and remote areas. COMMECT has established five Living Labs to explore innovative connectivity solutions, including NTN, 5G, IoT, and edge computing, with one of these labs located in Denmark. The primary focus of the Living Lab Denmark in the COMMECT project revolves around improving connectivity solutions for the livestock transport sector. To uphold animal welfare standards throughout transportation, the European Union established several regulations, these guidelines encourage the monitoring of specific parameters during transportation, including onboard sensors in the trailer. Moreover, certain country-specific regulations, such as those imposed by Danish transport standards, mandate continuous reporting of the truck’s location throughout the journey. Moreover, in the farm connectivity, solutions are needed for automated license plate recognition, and video analysis to give different insights for the (un-) loading process such as automated counting of the piglets, and automated recognition of ill or injures. It investigates multi-connectivity strategies that combine broadband satellite and 5G networks under mobility scenarios, as well as direct IoT-to-satellite connections for tracking and data collection on the road. Additionally, on farms, 5G private networks are evaluated against Wi-Fi, using either broadband satellite or public 5G as backhauling network. This study presents the deployment of actual equipment in the Living Lab and performance measurements under real conditions. See https://www.horizoneurope-commect.eu/living-labs/3-denmark-connected-livestock-transport for more information.

LR-FHSS: Header Redundancy Optimization

LR-FHSS is a recent FHSS modulation proposed by Semtech. It can handle traffic from tens of thousands of devices with a single gateway. Coupled with its large coverage area, it is well-suited for operation in satellite IoT services. Headers are crucial in LR-FHSS operation as they provide essential synchronization. We evaluate the trade-off between missing headers and overloading the channel with too many header replicas by modeling the LR-FHSS modulation. This could help optimizing LR-FHSS performance in satelite IoT applications.

[Poster] Drone Trajectory optimization with Proximal Policy Optimization for efficient data collection in IoT networks

This work addresses the trajectory optimization problem of a drone acting as a mobile gateway, collecting data from fixed Internet of Things (IoT) devices. We propose the use of Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO), a reinforcement learning algorithm, to optimize the trajectory. The algorithm ensures finding a path efficient enough to establish communication links with all the distributed IoT devices while minimizing energy consumption of the drone. The proposed approach formulates the problem in a dynamic environment where the gateway’s movement decisions are driven by a reward function that balances Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and drone’s energy efficiency. Preliminary simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the method, offering a promising solution for efficient data collection in IoT networks with mobile gateways mounted on drones.

[Poster] Emergency and Warning device over Non-Terrestrial Network

Ubiquitous connectivity is one of the main requirements for autonomous driving. Therefore, the standards of 3GPP and 5GAA are collaborating to support connectivity everywhere by providing seamless connectivity between terrestrial network (TN), e.g. cellular network, and non- terrestrial network (NTN), e.g. satellite. While 3GPP provides technical studies and standards to overcome the challenges of seamless connectivity, 5GAA proposes diverse use cases (UCs) to operate on TN and NTN. However, one of the main challenges of vehicle’s manufacturers is related to the added value of integrating NTN. Therefore, this research work aims to tackle this challenge by proposing UCs and scenarios that demonstrates the significance of providing NTN for automative industry. To fulfil this objective, this research work investigates 5GAA UCs, proposes communication protocol with respect to standards and develops a platform for real-time monitoring and alerts. Herein, two 5GAA UCs are investigated by deploying NTN, i.e. emergency-call (e-call) and weather warning alert. The NTN architecture for these UCs is composed mainly of a vehicle at the user-side, satellite and server at the vehicle’s manufacturers-side. The vehicle is equipped with a telemetric-control unit (TCU) that provides satellite connectivity to communicate with the manufacturer server. Herein, Iridium LEO constellation operating on L-band is deployed to provide satellite connectivity. In addition, this research work proposes a communication protocol for e-call and weather warning alert considering the standards CEN TC 278 and ETSI, respectively. In this context, minimum set of data (MSD) and decentralized environmental notification messages (DENM) have been developed for e-call and weather warning alert, respectively. Finally, both UCs and communications protocol are visualized, in this research work, by developing an emergency and warning platform at the user-side and manufacturer-side. The developed platform protects the user anywhere by connecting the user to the rescue anytime and anywhere. In the meanwhile, it provides a real-time monitoring for the manufacturer.