PAGE CONTENTS
Objectives
GEAR aims to develop an improved version of the 5G non-terrestrial networks (NTN) Release 18 protocol stack. The main topics covered are: (i) review the latest 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specifications for the NTN scenario starting from Release 17 and identify the missing models and functionalities by selecting the library that needs to be enhanced with Release 18 functionalities; (ii) identify the key functionalities planned for Release 19 to be added to the library; (iii) software design and development of the new functions in the user equipment and gNB protocol stack to support bidirectional communication links for geostationary orbit (GEO) and non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite networks; (iv) in-depth laboratory validation of the new functionalities of the software library.
Challenges
The key challenge of GEAR activity are:
- Review of the latest 3GPP specifications for the NTN scenario (i.e. Release 17) and identification of missing models and functionalities of the selected library to be enhanced with Release 18 functionalities;
- Identification of key functionalities foreseen for Release 19 to be added to the library;
- Software design and development of new functions in the UE and gNB protocol stack to support bidirectional communication links for GEO and NGSO satellite networks;
- Thorough laboratory validation of the functionalities of the new software library. This activity should be targeted to the publicly available licensing model (e.g. GPL license).
Current Status
GEAR project started on 16 June 2025, via a kick-off meeting with the ESA team.
