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As one of the key technologies in the Fifth Generation (5G) mobile communications, Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) is a fundamental enabler for providing global coverage to a wide range of applications requiring high availability and high resilience. The 3GPP 5G standards have been adapted to support Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) satellite communications. Satellite extension of 5G coverage will complement terrestrial coverage in rural areas where terrestrial services are not available, such as over vast oceans and deserts. Satellite communication is well suited for serving tracking and maritime applications. It is also well suited to provide resilience, address low-bandwidth machine type communications, broadcast, and other delay tolerant services.

Satellites are since long deployed in a wide range of frequency bands, including L-band (within the 1-2 GHz range), S-band (2-4 GHz range), and Ka-band (17.3-21.2 GHz, 27.0-31.0 GHz ranges) which are supported by 5G or under consideration in 3GPP. The system bandwidth is in the order of tens of MHz per link direction in lower bands and 100-1000 MHz in higher bands. The 5G NTN is based on the bent pipe architecture, where a feeder link signal is amplified and changed in frequency with the waveform preserved when forwarded to the service link. Onboard processing satellite transponders that incorporate regeneration are also supported by the 5G standards, including modulating and coding of the waveform. Locating the complete 5G base station onboard a satellite is, however, not currently considered in the 3GPP standard. Mobile devices constitute of both handhelds and other moving platform receivers mounted on automobiles, ships, planes, etc. Currently, the handhelds are limited to L- and S-bands in 3GPP standards, whereas the higher bands require a very small aperture terminal (VSAT). LEO satellites can move at a velocity of up to 7.65 km/s with earth-moving beams or earth-fixed beams on the ground with a typical in-coverage time of devices of a few minutes. The OFDM-based waveform is used in 5G NTN solutions specified in 3GPP.

This proposed Special Issue (SI) is aimed to enable NTN in 6G by seeking original and high-quality submissions related to the core area of this SI. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following subjects, all in the context of NTN:

• Mobility and handover management for NTN.
• Adaptive protocol and QoS for NTN.
• NTN and terrestrial network integration, including efficient frequency sharing.
• NTN radio resource management and optimization.
• Adaptive beamforming and beam management for NTN.
• NTN coverage, capacity, and peak data rate enhancements.
• NTN architectural enhancements and inter-satellite communication.
• Delay tolerant networking for/in NTN protocol and delay tolerant networking protocols.
• NTN support of localization services.
• 5G-Advanced and 6G standardization for NTN.
• NTN physical layer techniques (e.g., channel modeling and medium access control) and free space optical communication.
• Data security and AI/ML for NTN.
• NTN satellite communication system experiments, simulations, and modeling, including channel modeling.

Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors should prepare their submissions in accordance with the rules specified in the Information for Authors of the IEEE Wireless Communications guidelines.

Authors should submit a PDF version of their complete manuscript to Manuscript Central. The timetable is as follows:

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 1 May 2023 (Extended Deadline)
Initial Decision Date: 1June 2023
Revised Manuscript Due: 1 July 2023
Final Decision Date: 1 August 2023
Final Manuscript Due: 1 October 2023
Publication Date: December 2023

Guest Editors

I-Kang Fu
MediaTek Inc., Taiwan

Olof Liberg
Ericsson, Sweden

Pei Xiao
University of Surrey, UK

Symeon Chatzinotas
University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Tony Q. S. Quek
Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Singapore