On September 3, 2024, Alessandro Guidotti of UNIBO, which coordinates 6G-NTN, delivered a lecture titled “From 5G/5G-Advanced to 6G NTN” at the fourth edition of the Summer School “Frontier Technologies for Space 2.0 Communications” organized by the IEEE Technical Panel on Glue Technologies for Space Systems.
The AESS Glue Technologies for Space Systems Technical Panel is focused on technologies that constitute the necessary common platform for the innovative systems based on space components (satellites, UAV, rovers, landers, orbiters, etc.) that will be deployed in the near future across various application fields (satellite and aerospace communications, interplanetary communications, planet exploration, Internet of Space Things, etc.).
The Summer School has been organized annually since 2021 offering students from across the world an opportunity to follow cutting-edge lectures held by leading experts in communication technologies. In 2024, just like in the previous three editions, the Summer School was open to Master’s and Ph.D. students, as well as academic and industrial research fellows who are interested in increasing their knowledge about new trends in space communication and networking research. This full-week virtual event was held from September 2 to September 6, 2024. 6G-NTN’s Alessandro Guidotti delivered his presentation on Day 2, during the session titled “Space Softwarization: from Physical Layer to Services: A New Paradigmatic Vision of Space Networks” alongside Fabrizio Granelli and Claudio Sacchi, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
The key takeaways from the event include:
- The integration of an NTN component into 5G has been a reality since Rel. 17 (2018). This is considered the first milestone of a long path, which has been initiated more than 20 years ago.
- 6G targets a native NTN component in a 3D multi-layered architecture for service improvement and market enlargement, which calls for both evolutionary and revolutionary technologies, including regenerative payloads, functional split in space, and AI-based network orchestration, to name a few.
- The strict interaction of research, industries, and standardization/regulatory bodies has been key to the success of NTN, but several new challenges have been identified since and they are calling for even tighter interactions between the various stakeholders.
More information about the event, including the full event agenda is available here: https://ieee-aess.org/event/workshop/2024-glue-technologies-space-systems-technical-panel-phd-summer-school