Satellite Beam Management for Constant Footprint Coverage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) face challenges in maintaining consistent beam footprints due to variations in satellite position and elevation angles, leading to increased handover rates, interference, and reduced system capacity, which affects service quality and network efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A method for determining and applying initial and subsequent beam configurations in NTNs to minimize beam footprint variations, using a beambook that includes a list of beam configurations based on satellite location, steering angles, and user equipment preferences to maintain a constant beam footprint, thereby optimizing beam management and reducing interference.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If beam configurations are adjusted to track satellite motion, then beam coverage is maintained, but beam footprint variation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts beam configurations based on satellite position and elevation angle, using a beambook that contains pre-calculated beam configurations for different orbital positions. The controller selects appropriate beam configurations from the beambook to maintain consistent beam footprint coverage despite satellite motion.
Solution Approach 2:
The beambook is pre-computed containing beam configurations for various satellite positions and elevation angles. This preliminary preparation allows the controller to quickly select appropriate configurations without real-time calculation, maintaining consistent beam footprint while tracking satellite motion.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If beam footprint is kept constant, then interference is reduced, but handover rates increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes beam configuration parameters (amplitude, phase, delay) for each antenna element based on satellite position and elevation angle to maintain constant beam footprint. This parameter adjustment minimizes interference while managing handover transitions between beams.
3Stability of the object's composition
If beam configurations are frequently updated, then beam footprint consistency is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of performing complex real-time calculations, the system uses a beambook that contains pre-calculated beam configurations copied from offline computations. The controller simply retrieves appropriate configurations from the beambook based on current satellite position, reducing real-time computational complexity while maintaining beam footprint consistency.
Data Source
AI summary
A method can include determining an initial beam configuration by a controller at a satellite in a non-terrestrial network (NTN); applying the initial beam configuration to control an antenna array to transmit a beam to cover a target service area; determining subsequent beam configurations, by the controller, corresponding to a sequence of locations along an orbit of the satellite; and applying the subsequent beam configurations at each of the sequence of locations successively to control the antenna array to transmit respective beams to cover the target service area while the satellite is flying along the orbit. The controller determines the initial beam configuration and the subsequent beam configurations in a way that a variation of beam footprints of the beams is minimized to realize a constant beam footprint corresponding to the target service area.