Non-Terrestrial Networks for 6G: Integrated, Intelligent and Ubiquitous Connectivity

Jamshed, Muhammad Ali ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2141-9025, Kaushik, Aryan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6252-4641, Dajer, Miguel, Guidotti, Alessandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4480-0010, Parzysz, Fanny, Lagunas, Eva ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9936-7245, Renzo, Marco Di, Chatzinotas, Symeon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5122-0001 and Dobre, Octavia A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8528-0512 (2025) Non-Terrestrial Networks for 6G: Integrated, Intelligent and Ubiquitous Connectivity. IEEE Communications Standards Magazine. p. 1. ISSN 2471-2833

Preview

Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Universal connectivity has been part of past and current generations of wireless systems, but as we approach the sixth generation (6G), the subject of social responsibility is being built as a core component. Given the advent of Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN), reaching these goals will be much closer to realization than ever before. Owing to the benefits of NTN, the integration of NTN and Terrestrial Networks (TN) is still at its infancy, where the past, the current and future standard releases within the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) provide guidelines to adopt a successfully co-existence/integration of TN and NTN. Therefore, in this article, we illustrate, through 3GPP guidelines, how NTN and TN can effectively be integrated. Moreover, the role of beamforming and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is highlighted to achieve this integration. Finally, the usefulness of integrating NTN and TN is validated through numerical analysis.