The Trends, Challenges, and Key Technologies of Beam-Space Multiplexing in the Integrated Terristrial-Satellite Communication for B5G and 6G
Shanzhi Chen, Shaohui Sun, Deshan Miao, Tong Shi, Yupeng Cui
Abstract
Along with the development of beam-space multiplexing theory, multi-layer beamforming has been applied successfully in 4G and 5G terrestrial wireless communication systems to increase the system capacity. For the future Integrated Terrestrial-Satellite Communication (ITSC), beam-space multiplexing is also expected to improve beamforming gain, wireless link quality, and data transmission rate. This article explores beam-space multiplexing in the ITSC toward B5G and 6G, including its application scenarios, evolution trends, technical challenges and key technologies. Based on the analysis of system capacity, performance evaluation is obtained by the simulation of several scenarios, which highlights the promising gain of beam-space multiplexing of the ITSC.