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Towards Enabling 5G-NTN Satellite Communications for Manned and Unmanned Rotary Wing Aircraft

Vasileios Leon, Ilias Christofilos, Athanasios Nesiadis, Iosif Paraskevas, Juan Perrela, Georgios Ioannopoulos, Alexandros Tasoulis-Nonikas, Mathieu Bernou, Jacques Reading

TL;DR

This work tackles the problem of delivering reliable broadband SatCom to manned and unmanned rotary-wing aircraft using 5G-NTN across GEO, MEO, and LEO constellations. It employs an end-to-end modeling approach that couples orbital propagation (via STK) with MATLAB-based 5G-NTN simulations and a blade-interference model to evaluate realistic RWAs scenarios. The study provides the first examination of 5G-NTN SatCom on RWAs, highlighting blade-induced burst errors (BER near $10^{-1}$ and BLER around 10–20%) and delineating gaps that must be addressed to enable mainstream deployment, especially for small RWAs. The findings offer design guidance for antenna placement, handover strategies, and cross-layer architectures that can enable high-data-rate, resilient SatCom-enabled RWAs for public safety, emergency response, and urban air mobility applications.

Abstract

Satellite Communications (SatCom) are a backbone of worldwide development. In contrast with the past, when the GEO satellites were the only means for such connectivity, nowadays the multi-orbital connectivity is emerging, especially with the use of satellite constellations. Simultaneously, SatCom enabled the so-called In-Flight Connectivity, while with the advent of 5G-NTN, the development of this market is being accelerated. However, there are still various missing points before such a technology becomes mainstream, especially in the case of Rotary Wing Aircraft (RWA). Indeed, due to their particular characteristics, such as the low altitude flights and the blade interference, there are still open challenges. In this work, an End-to-End (E2E) analysis for the performance of SatCom under 5G-NTN for manned and unmanned RWA is performed. Various scenarios are examined, and related requirements are shown. The effects of blades and other characteristics of the RWA are established, and simulations for these cases are developed. Results along with related discussion are presented, while future directions for development are suggested. This work is part of the ESA ACROSS-AIR project.

Towards Enabling 5G-NTN Satellite Communications for Manned and Unmanned Rotary Wing Aircraft

TL;DR

This work tackles the problem of delivering reliable broadband SatCom to manned and unmanned rotary-wing aircraft using 5G-NTN across GEO, MEO, and LEO constellations. It employs an end-to-end modeling approach that couples orbital propagation (via STK) with MATLAB-based 5G-NTN simulations and a blade-interference model to evaluate realistic RWAs scenarios. The study provides the first examination of 5G-NTN SatCom on RWAs, highlighting blade-induced burst errors (BER near and BLER around 10–20%) and delineating gaps that must be addressed to enable mainstream deployment, especially for small RWAs. The findings offer design guidance for antenna placement, handover strategies, and cross-layer architectures that can enable high-data-rate, resilient SatCom-enabled RWAs for public safety, emergency response, and urban air mobility applications.

Abstract

Satellite Communications (SatCom) are a backbone of worldwide development. In contrast with the past, when the GEO satellites were the only means for such connectivity, nowadays the multi-orbital connectivity is emerging, especially with the use of satellite constellations. Simultaneously, SatCom enabled the so-called In-Flight Connectivity, while with the advent of 5G-NTN, the development of this market is being accelerated. However, there are still various missing points before such a technology becomes mainstream, especially in the case of Rotary Wing Aircraft (RWA). Indeed, due to their particular characteristics, such as the low altitude flights and the blade interference, there are still open challenges. In this work, an End-to-End (E2E) analysis for the performance of SatCom under 5G-NTN for manned and unmanned RWA is performed. Various scenarios are examined, and related requirements are shown. The effects of blades and other characteristics of the RWA are established, and simulations for these cases are developed. Results along with related discussion are presented, while future directions for development are suggested. This work is part of the ESA ACROSS-AIR project.
Paper Structure (11 sections, 4 equations, 4 figures, 7 tables)

This paper contains 11 sections, 4 equations, 4 figures, 7 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Scenarios for Rotary Wing Aircraft with Satellite Communications
  3. System Definition & Analysis
  4. Satellite Constellations
  5. Rotary Wing Aircraft
  6. Blade Interference in Communication Link
  7. 5G-NTN Satellite Communications
  8. System Modeling & Simulation
  9. Discussion
  10. Conclusion
  11. Acknowledgement

Figures (4)

  • Figure 1: Commercial rotary wing aircraft targeted by the current work.
  • Figure 2: Modeling of the blades' interference in the SatCom link of RWA.
  • Figure 3: Blades' effect in the SatCom link of RWA.
  • Figure 4: End-to-end 5G-NTN simulations for the RWA scenarios, tailored to the CNR range of each flight (Table \ref{['tb_satres']}).