Spectators across America who tuned into Super Bowl LIX this Sunday to watch the Kansas City Chiefs attempt to make history against the Philadelphia Eagles may have been surprised by far more than the lopsided Eagles victory. A commercial that played during the game’s second half offered something genuinely new and revolutionary to mobile phone users – access to a satellite-enabled messaging service courtesy of T-Mobile and its partner Starlink.

The integration of cellular networks and satellite networks – or non-terrestrial networks (NTN) – is one of many trends that has been gaining traction across the telecom industry. Although this new satellite-enabled messaging solution from T-Mobile may be one of the first examples of a service offering powered by satellite being marketed to cellular customers, others are in development.

Starlink and T-Mobile initially tested satellite-enabled connectivity for mobile devices last year in areas impacted by natural disasters. Other SATCOM companies – including AST Space Mobile – are working to reach similar deals with other telecom providers, including industry giants Verizon and AT&T.

While the integration of NTN into 5G cellular networks is in its infancy, all signs point to NTN being a more significant part of mobile networks in the future - especially as the telecom industry turns the page from 5G networks to new 6G standards.

The 6G Evolution (Not Revolution)

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) – the umbrella organization comprised of multiple standards organizations responsible for developing mobile telecommunications protocols – frequently issues new standards or “releases” for mobile networks. These new standards are incremental improvements or advancements that can be integrated into the existing generation of mobile networks. However, when advancements in technology or new developments are too significant to be easily integrated or adopted into the existing generation, a new generation needs to be created.

“Each generation typically lasts about 10 years in terms of development. Within each generation, there are multiple releases [which] come out about every 18 to 24 months. It’s these new releases where new features are bolted on over time,” explained Jaydee Griffith, the Managing Director at the ATIS Next G Alliance. “At some point...it becomes very difficult to support older releases, or it becomes difficult to integrate new technologies into existing hardware through software patches. This requires a hardware refresh and usually results in a new generation.”

With 5G rapidly approaching ten years of existence, it makes sense that the telecom industry is starting the process of defining the 6G standard. But that process is still in its infancy.

“The position on 6G is not clear yet. There is activity within 3GPP and various other groups in the U.S. and Asia looking at what the requirements are for 6G, but 6G will come in later releases,” said Joe Barrett, the President of the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), a leading telecom industry association representing mobile providers worldwide. “3GPP is currently finalizing release 18 of the standard. Release 17 is being implemented at the moment. 6G will probably come in release 21. So, they’re talking about 2030 being the earliest time for the introduction of 6G networks.”

With a new generation of mobile networks being defined and poised to be deployed in just five years’ time, the average mobile user may be wondering what revolutionary new devices and capabilities they can anticipate when calendars roll over to 2030. However, they may see few differences from what they currently receive from their mobile providers.

As Griffith explained, “What’s next? For the end user, it’ll seem very similar. It’s not like smartphones are going away. Fixed cellular modems for home Internet are not going away. But we will see how the network operates on the backend change quite a bit.”

That experience may not be limited to end users. The new generation of mobile networks could seem like a small step forward for network operators, as well.

“Some generations are just dry runs for the generation that will come after. 6G will most likely be an evolution of 5G. It will not be a big revolution,” said Prof. Alessandro Vanelli-Coralli, a Professor at the University of Bologna and the Coordinator of the Horizon Europe 6G-NTN Project, which researches and develops technical and standardization enablers for fully integrating an NTN component into the future 6G infrastructure. “There’s still a need to realize a return on the investment into 5G, so investing in a totally different system would be unthinkable. However, 6G will bring large improvements in many areas.”

Those improvements seem to be two-fold. First, there is a belief across the industry that 6G will be the first generation of mobile networks to have artificial intelligence (AI) baked into its core.

“Much of the 6G design thus far is being built with AI in mind, both network optimization and for making the network an effective highway for AI-related workloads,” said Griffith. “Neural networks, large language models, and machine learning capabilities need higher reliability, lower latency, and faster response times. To enable that, 3GPP is looking at how we can architect the network to better support AI workloads, whether that means moving some of the computing to the edge or just better prioritizing AI traffic. That AI piece will be big in five or six years.”

“The key discussion is really about how AI will be built into the 6G standard,” said Barrett. “Network operators will be looking to AI to make things like network management and frequency management easier and more simplified. This will help to reduce the cost of rolling out the networks.”

Experts also agree that 6G will be the first generation to have NTN integrated from the jump, not bolted on as it was with 5G. As Griffith explained, “Going into 6G, we’re seeing the industry pushing to fully integrate NTN into the regular terrestrial network.”

But what benefits will NTN bring to cellular customers and network operators? And what changes have enabled NTN to be integrated into 6G at a fundamental level?

More Than Ubiquitous Coverage

While recent news shows that 5G networks are being integrated with NTN already, this is a relatively new development. The original 5G standard released in 2017 did not have NTN integration. What has changed in the past eight years to make NTN integration possible and make NTN a core part of the 6G standard? It’s ultimately a result of advancements in the satellite industry and in terrestrial satellite hardware.

“Ten or 15 years ago [when the 5G standard was developed], you had mostly high-latency geostationary satellites in orbit. There was very little Low Earth Orbit (LEO) capability out there. Now, 15 years later, we’ve got Starlink and a dozen or so other companies putting LEO satellites up there and looking to offer service. Back then, the capacity didn’t match the operators’ requirements,” explained Barrett. “Also, 15 years ago, the satellite operators weren’t looking at aligning with the 3GPP technologies. They had their own satellite systems [and] their own satellite to mobile services with quite big, chunky handsets because that’s what was required.”

But it wasn’t just technological advancements that were needed to make NTN integration possible with terrestrial cellular networks. Some education was also required.

“When 5G started, satellite was not part of the 3GPP’s plan. It didn’t become a consideration until 5G was already implemented,” said Prof. Vanelli-Coralli. “What was needed was for the satellite industry to better raise awareness among the telecom industry about what satellites can actually provide. They needed to demonstrate the resilience, flexibility, and high-throughput capabilities that NTN could deliver, and to show that NTN is an important added value and essential complement to the terrestrial networks.“

Now that these LEO satellite networks exist and telecom industry leaders are aware of their capabilities, NTN is starting to play a role in 5G networks. However, that role is often limited. As Griffith of ATIS shared, “[In recent 5G releases] is where NTN really started getting traction, but it was viewed as more of supplemental coverage for geographic areas without cellular coverage. LEO satellites are there to provide coverage in those areas.”

But the integration of NTN into 6G networks promises that satellites will play an even larger role in the future.

“The fundamental role of satellite and NTN, in general, up to now has been a geographical extension of the network. However, there are several use cases, in addition to the direct to smartphone connectivity, where NTN plays a fundamental role such as vertical sectors like automotive, transport, utilities, and agriculture services,” said Prof. Vanelli-Coralli. “Also, for use cases like public protection and disaster relief, satellites can provide continuity of service. In scenarios like natural disasters, terrestrial networks often go down and there’s no connectivity. Satellites are resilient and can continue to provide services to the users, as well as to rescue teams, during emergencies.”

There is also the potential for NTN integration to extend cellular networks to places they could never reach before – including the area above cellular towers.

“Typical terrestrial networks are built with the radios on towers, or on the top of tall buildings with their antennas pointed downward because that’s where the users are - on the ground,” said Griffith. “NTN can enable support for higher altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) command and control. NTN could enable phones to work just as well at 30,000 feet in the air as they do when you’re sitting in the airport lounge. Once the capability is there, and we start rolling it out for a defined set of use cases, we’ll start seeing even more use cases being conceived.”

While 6G is still five or more years away, it’s clear that NTN will be a part of the standard – not simply a “nice to have” feature that is bolted on later, like it was with 5G. And that should be exciting for users, who will see the capability, reliability, and throughputs of their mobile devices increase – even if they don’t know why.

“As we move into 6G, and as there are more agreements between the network operators and the LEO constellation operators, you’ll see seamless handovers between mobile networks and NTN that truly maximize what end users can do on their phone and where they can do it,” said Griffith. “They won’t even recognize that they left a terrestrial coverage area.”

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