6G service coverage with mega satellite constellations
Min Sheng, Di Zhou, Weigang Bai, Junyu Liu, Jiandong Li
Abstract
The rapid development and continuous updating of the mega satellite constellation (MSC) have brought new visions for the future 6G coverage extension, where the global seamless signal coverage can realize ubiquitous services for user terminals. However, global traffic demands present nonuniform characteristics. Therefore, how to ensure the on-demand service coverage for the specific traffic demand, i.e., the ratio of traffic density to service requirement per unit area, is the core issue of 6G wireless coverage extension exploiting the MSC. To this regard, this paper first discusses the open challenges to reveal the future direction of 6G wireless coverage extension from the perspective of key factors affecting service coverage performance, i.e., the network access capacity, space segment capacity and their matching-relationship. Furthermore, we elaborate on the key factors affecting effective matchings of the aforementioned aspects, thereby improving service coverage capability.