Evaluation of 5G Core Enhancements for supporting Non-Terrestrial Networks (ARD/305)

This seed project aims to conduct evaluation of the 5G core enhancements to support Satellite Non-Terrestrial Networks deployment. Non-terrestrial networks are different from terrestrial networks, especially in three major areas in the 5G core, namely: 1. Long proposition delay between the user equipment and the satellite 2. Access and mobility management mechanisms are different from the terrestrial network because the size of cell area and the moving nature of the cell. 3. Quality of Service for user equipment for policy enforcement. In this project, the team will evaluate the above challenges in the 5G networking functions and propose key procedures and algorithms for addressing the above three challenges, mainly for the Low Earth Orbit cases which LEO is more commonly found in the market. Recently, the radio access team has been contacted by satellite operators for upgrading base stations for supporting transparent mode of satellite communication in Hong Kong and in the mainland. With the upgrades becoming available for the base stations, the network core needs to be ready for an end-to-end deployment. This will speed up the actual implementation of the 5G in the future platform project, and thus the actual deployment and shorten time to market.