5G NTN-18

Space for 5G

Status

Ongoing
Status date

2025-07-06
Activity Code

3F.011

Objectives

The 5G NTN-18 project aims to provide a full 5G non-terrestrial network (NTN) New Radio (NR) Release 18 protocol stack that will be tested in real time channel emulators for certain NTN application scenarios such as Frequency Range 1 (FR1) and Frequency Range 2 (FR2) bands, beamforming, bandwidth and numerology configurations. The protocol stack will also integrate some Release 19 features demonstrating the regenerative type of 5G NTN communication systems.

Challenges

The 5G NTN-18 project will address multiple challenges related to NTN-NTN and terrestrial networks (TN)-NTN mobility handovers, radio coverage enhancements and high numerology and bandwidth transmission. Another key challenge is to demonstrate the protocol stack platform using real time simulator over Software-Defined Radio (SDR) devices for both FR1 and FR2 bands.

Benefits

The product will be 5G NTN NR Release 18 protocol stack compliant (along with some Release 19) with high numerologies and bandwidth transmission plus beamforming capabilities for future direct-to-device communication systems based on regenerative payload architecture.

Features

The product features are listed below:

Mobility and handover enhancements in NTN-NTN and TN-NTN scenarios.
Cell reselection enhancements with Satellite Switch with Resynchronisation.
Coverage enhancements and beamforming satellite.
High numerology and bandwidth transmission.

System Architecture

The system architecture consists of the following elements:

gNb compliant with Release 18 features
UE compliant with Release 18 features
Channel emulator for FR1 and FR2 bands over geostationary orbit (GEO) / low Earth orbit (LEO) and very low Earth orbit (VLEO) satellites.

Plan

The project plan is summarised as follows: