In our previous post, Enabling End-to-End Service Delivery, we explored MSSA’s role and introduced our Reference Architecture, including how we address each component within the service chain to enable end-to-end service delivery. Today, we’ll dive into Resource Management: how satellites balance power, bandwidth, and coverage to deliver seamless service.
Resource Management: Doing more with less.
Unlike terrestrial networks, satellites operate with tight power budgets, limited bandwidth, and constrained processing capacity. Making the most out of limited resources is crucial in NTN communication. Satellites can’t power all their beams simultaneously, and they also face limitations on beamforming, potential interference, and bandwidth. In reality, only 10-20% of beams can be active at full or reduced power at any given time.
As a result, strategies for beam hopping (shifting coverage to where it’s needed) and frequency/time reuse (dynamically allocating power, bandwidth, and beams based on demand while reducing inter-system interference) need to be in place. Other approaches, like beam forming and satellite tracking (mapping Earth-fixed cells to moving satellites), should also be considered to help coordinate beams and keep systems running smoothly without overhauling the entire New Radio (NR) architecture.
Mitigating these constraints can be accomplished by optimizing beam hopping with a mandatory beam arbitrator (multi-cell scheduler) to reduce overhead and optimize NR cell signaling (SSB/SIB/PRACH and paging/random access periodicities).
What’s Next:
Next, we’ll look at MSS Architecture: Roaming and Network Sharing in NTN ‒ how agreements and technologies keep people connected everywhere.