Prospects of using UAV-repeaters in integrated TN and NTN-networks

Abstract

The combination of terrestrial (TN - Terrestrial Network) and non-terrestrial (NTN - Non-Terrestrial Network) networks is a promising direction for the development of communication access systems and service provision. The paper presents the prospects of integrating TN-NTN networks using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which perform the functions of repeaters and satellites located in low Earth orbit (LEO - Low Earth Orbit), and which provide communication at a frequency of 6 GHz. The use of UAVs as telecommunication relays is becoming a more widespread concept today due to low cost and high mobility, which allows providing a wide range of services to a large number of users at almost any point of the allocated territory. A multi-level access system using a dense satellite LEO group allows you to offload a large part of the traffic coming to the UAV from ground users (GUE - Ground Users). The transfer of UAV traffic to the NTN segment significantly reduces the probability of UAV downlink communication failures from 70% to almost zero, and also increases the quality of the uplink under conditions of optimal elevation of LEO satellites. Due to the offloading of traffic in NTN, the probability of failures in the uplink communication channel is reduced by about 12%. Despite the limited bandwidth available below 6 GHz, UAVs with NTN offload meet C&C data rate requirements of 60-100 kbps per UAV per TN cell. Less loading of the UAV leads to proportionally higher indicators, which under such conditions allows for the provision of broadband services. Effective offloading of UAV traffic to the NTN segment allows maintaining an acceptable level of the signal to interference + noise ratio (SINR – Signal to Interference + Noise Ratio).