Non-Geostationary Satellite Communications Systems

Recent technological advances have made possible the creation of a chain of non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) communications systems. Such systems offer the advantages of ubiquity, relatively low costs, and upgradable infrastructure that enables the use of innovative on-board technologies. This evolution opens up a plethora of opportunities for massive self-organized, reconfigurable and resilient NGSO constellations, which can operate as a global network.

Ambitious low-orbit constellation types are currently being developed, motivated by advanced communication technologies and cheaper launch costs. These emerging architectures require accurate system orchestration involving different research domains including wireless communications, spectrum management, dynamic antenna and tracking systems, inter-satellite links and routing strategies.

This edited book presents a broad overview of the research in NGSO constellations for future satellite communication network design including key technologies and architectures and specific use-case-oriented communications design and analysis. The book will be of interest to academic researchers and scientists, communication engineers and industrial actors in satcom, satellite networking and mobile and wireless communication. It will also serve as a useful reference for advanced students and postdocs and lecturers in satellite communication and networking and mobile and wireless communication.

Eva Lagunas is a research scientist in the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) at the University of Luxembourg. Her research interests include radio resource management and general wireless networks optimization. She is a senior member of IEEE and a member of EURASIP, where she contributes to the Technical Area Committee (TAC) of Theoretical and Methodological Trends in Signal Processing. She received her PhD degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona, Spain. She conducted research stays at the Department of Information Engineering, Pisa, Italy, and at the Center for Advanced Communications (CAC), Villanova University, PA, USA.

Symeon Chatzinotas is Full Professor and Head of the SIGCOM Research Group at SnT, University of Luxembourg. He is coordinating the research activities on communications and networking across a group of 80 researchers, acting as a PI for more than 40 projects and main representative for 3GPP, ETSI, DVB. He is currently serving in the editorial board of the IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technology and the International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking. In the past, he has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Parma, Italy and was involved in numerous R&D projects for NCSR Demokritos, CERTH Hellas and CCSR, University of Surrey. He is an IEEE Fellow and the co-recipient of the 2014 IEEE Distinguished Contributions to Satellite Communications Award and Best Paper Awards at WCNC, 5GWF, EURASIP JWCN, CROWNCOM, ICSSC. He has (co-)authored more than 700 technical papers in refereed international journals, conferences and scientific books.

Kang An is a senior engineer with the Sixty-third Research Institute, National University of Defense Technology, Nanjing, China. His research interests include cooperative and cognitive communications, radio resource management and optimization in wireless networks. He is a member of the IEEE. He received his PhD degree from the Army Engineering University, Nanjing, China.

Bassel F. Beidas is a scientist with the Advanced Development Group at Hughes, USA. He is responsible for the research and development in advanced transmission technologies, which have been successfully incorporated into premier product lines in cellular and satellite communications. His research interests include signal classification, interference cancellation, adaptive signal processing, MIMO, synchronization, and nonlinear systems. He holds over 35 US patents on digital communications techniques and has several patents pending. He was the winner of the prestigious 2021 Satellite Communications Technical Recognition Award, from the IEEE ComSoc Satellite and Space Communications Technical Committee. He received the M.S. degree (Hons.) in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, USA, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, USA.