PAGE CONTENTS
Objectives
Earlier in terrestrial communication and computer networks generic multi-purpose servers brought an extremely high economy of scale through drastic reduction of production costs and the increased flexibility offered. However, if we try to replicate this success in the space environment for the provision of future space services a common hardware would not suffice, additional dedicated peripherals are required. As such, to be able to provide and utilise a Server in Space (SiS) the trade-offs between the capabilities that can be re-used for different services, starting from a generic all-purpose server, and the level of performance expected by the space use cases, until now provided through dedicated designs shall be considered, studied and analysed.
To be able to reach the SiS economy of scale the system must be able to address and to optimize for very diverse existing, as well as new use cases that have a high potential. This includes the potential local processing of Earth Observation data use cases (e.g. radar) as well as new 5G and beyond 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN), including short path communication using Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC), local applications (e.g. voice over NTN) and the emerging joint communication and sensing (JCAS). Currently, these use cases either rely on dedicated hardware or are not yet deployed in space nodes.
The ambition of 5GEOSiS is to support this evolution through the provision of a suitable hardware test-bed and initial trade-off studies.
Challenges
In general, the biggest challenge for the project is that the concepts for space-based Joint Processing and Communication and Integrated Sensing and Communications are not yet very mature making it difficult to assess the benefit and value of sharing of parts (e.g. frequency up-/down-conversion) or all (including the antenna) of the RF Tx/Rx chain between 5G communications and RF sensing. Within this main challenge there is a clear issue regarding the limited (rather low) capacity of compute elements, and the critical aspect of interfacing with the peripheral elements.
Concerning the fundamental aspect of sharing resources, the project plans to use practices and solutions already proven in terrestrial networks.
The management of the repurposing and the actual solution adopted needs to be optimised for the expected intervals between repurposing.
Last, but certainly not least, solutions for the actual sharing of and repurposing mechanisms regarding certain hardware components, especially antennas, amplifiers and DSPs in the context of ISAC are something to be developed.
System Architecture
In the diagram below we provide a schematic depiction of a generic all purpose Server in Space.
Plan
The 5GEOSiS activities are organised in two parallel strands as depicted below.
The WP1-WP4 strand focuses on Joint Processing and Communication (JPAC), whilst the parallel WP5-WP6 strand focuses on the Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC).
5GEOSiS plans with four milestones.
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Milestone 1 is the System Requirements Review regarding JPAC and the Critical Design Review of the Test-bed and is scheduled for month 5.
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Milestone 2 is the Critical Design Review concerning JPAC, the Test Readiness Review concerning the test-bed and the System Requirements Review concerning the Integrated Sensing and Communication, and is scheduled for month 9.
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Milestone 3 is the Test-bed validation review and the Critical Design Review concerning ISAC, and is scheduled for month 14.
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Milestone 4 is the Final Review and is scheduled after completing the activities by the end of month 15.
Current Status
The 5GEOSiS project started in July 2023. Initial activities most notably include the organisation of a workshop in September 2023 with a specific focus on Joint Processing and Communication.
