An Analytical Study on Functional Split in Martian 3-D Networks

Abstract

As space agencies are planning manned missions to reach Mars, researchers need to pave the way for supporting astronauts during their sojourn. This will also be achieved by providing broadband and low-latency connectivity through wireless network infrastructures. In such a framework, we propose a Martian deployment of a 3-D network acting as cloud radio access network (C-RAN). The scenario consists of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and small satellite platforms. Thanks to the thin Martian atmosphere, CubeSats can stably orbit at very-low-altitude. This allows to meet strict delay requirements to split baseband processing functions between drones and CubeSats. The detailed analytical study, presented in this article, confirmed the viability of the proposed 3-D architecture, under some constraints and tradeoff concerning the involved network infrastructures, that will be discussed in detail.