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Objectives
The objective of the proposed activity is to develop and validate a toolset, Carnot-Sat, that enables the planning and deployment of heterogeneous terrestrial/satellite networks, necessary to underpin the quantitative design and evaluation of such networks and open up the market for satellites in 5G by focussing on the benefits to the terrestrial network operators.
The objectives for the toolset itself are to allow network operators to produce and optimise a 5G radio access plan enabled by new network morphologies and to produce a transmission plan (backhaul plan) for satellite and terrestrial (fibre, microwave) networks that support these radio access networks. This can be possible for both greenfield and brownfield sites. Additionally, network planners are expected to be able to carry out trade-off cost analyses of different backhaul options, model the 5G network performance from a 5G application and RF coverage perspective, and utilise a 3D viewing capability that enables line of sight analysis.
To avoid disrupting the pre-existing network planning tools, the project includes delivery of a tool which integrates into existing terrestrial RF planning tools to maximising market uptake by existing operators.
Challenges
This project requires a broad spectrum of skills to be fully realised. CGI have built a multidisciplinary team with expertise in telecoms, satellite, business operations and geospatial technology.
Technical challenges include producing a product which integrates with widely used tools within telecom and satcoms industries and having scalable and flexible results from testing to commercialisation. The product aims to assimilate data from various cost, planning, capacity management and scenario planning tools into a single toolset.
System Architecture
Plan
The project Definition Phase runs from October 2019 through to March 2020. The technology phase runs up until January 2021 where the Product Phase begins. User workshops are planned for October 2020 through to the start of 2021. Use case demonstrations are planned for mid-2021 before the project wrap up slightly later that year.
Current Status
The use cases and requirements have been identified and reviewed with stakeholders. The team is working on identifying and mitigating project and technical risks as they proceed through the technical planning and development stage ready for testing. Development will take over as the primary focus for the next few months to ensure that system requirements have been met and clients can engage with confidence when comes to integrating into their systems.
Companies
