Space for 5G/6G

ESA's Connectivity and Secure Communications and the Future Communications Research and Development Programme (FCP) at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) have formalised a tighter research partnership on 5G/6G non-terrestrial networks (NTNs).  This collaboration falls within the Space for 5G/6G & Sustainable Connectivity programme of ESA’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES).

A new CubeSat developed with support from the European Space Agency (ESA) has made it to orbit as a part of the Direct Access Live Demonstration (LIDE) mission. Aiming to test the feasibility and demonstrate establishing a stable 5G connection from low Earth orbit, LIDE serves as a proof-of-concept to provide connectivity anywhere in the world – especially in underserved areas.

As part of a telemedicine demonstration, European Space Agency (ESA) teams based at the European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT) in Harwell, UK, and the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, partnered with leading telecommunications company Nokia to showcase telemedicine applications of the Real-time eXtended Reality Multimedia (RXRM) system.

ESA, Telesat and the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) RAL Space have reported a groundbreaking milestone in telecommunications technology, successfully establishing a Q-Band (38-39 GHz) link over LEO, between the RAL Space Chilbolton Observatory and the Telesat LEO 3 demonstration satellite.

A strategic vision for the future of telecommunications, where Artificial Intelligence (AI) serves as the cornerstone of next-generation networks, has been presented in a new whitepaper released by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Space for 5G/6G and Sustainable Connectivity programme.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) of Japan met at the NICT Innovation Center in Tokyo on 31 March. The meeting discussed the key results of trials resulting from the ESA-NICT collaboration on 5G/6G and satellite, the lessons learned, and technical areas of interest for an extension of the collaboration, funded under ESA’s Space for 5G/6G and Sustainable Connectivity.