ETRI to lead 6G LEO satellite communications development

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) has been selected as the general organization for the development of a low-orbit satellite communication system based on the 6G standard of 3GPP, the government-led international standardization organization.

On April 27, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Administration announced the lead research and development organizations for the three assignments of the ‘Development of Low Earth Orbit Satellite Communication System Based on 6G International Standards’ project, and ETRI will be in charge of the general management, including assignment 1.

The project aims to build a low-orbit satellite communication system consisting of two low-orbit communication satellites, a ground station, and a terminal station by 2030, and will develop a low-orbit satellite communication pilot network by building a communication satellite and ground system that performs satellite-to-ground and satellite-to-satellite communication functions.

As the lead research institute for this project, ETRI will establish a close cooperation system among research institutes to carry out large-scale system development projects. It will be led by ETRI’s assistance vice president of Satellite Communications Research Division, Lee Moon Sik.

ETRI, which is in charge of assignment 1, is responsible for ‘development of core technologies for low-orbit satellite communication payload and ground station based on 3GPP 6G standard’ together with Hanwha Systems, LIG ​​Nex1, and Satrec Initiative.

Assignment 2 will be led by Solid to develop the terminal station, and assignment 3 will be led by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) to develop the satellite body and system integration.

In addition, major telecommunications companies such as KT, KT SAT, SK Telecom, and LG U+ will also participate in the project to promote their requirements from the beginning of system development and lay the foundation for future commercialization.

Through this project, ETRI plans to secure world-class technologies such as ▲ core technology for regenerative repeaters, ▲ payload digital signal processing technology, ▲ inter-satellite link technology, ▲ high-efficiency phased array antenna technology.

In particular, by applying the 6G NTN standard technology of the international standardization organization 3GPP, it aims to lay the foundation for the era of hyperspace communication that encompasses ground and air communication.

Currently, the global market is led by SpaceX, but Eutelsat OneWeb and Amazon are also entering the market in earnest. They are all based on proprietary technologies, which means they are not compatible across services and are limited by device dependency.

On the other hand, the 6G low-orbit satellite communication system that ETRI will develop in the future by applying international standard technologies will increase openness and universality so that users can freely choose the terminal model they want, such as smartphones, and use Internet communication services anytime, anywhere.

Through this project, the researchers plan to strengthen domestic industrial competitiveness by establishing a foundation for advancing into the global market along with technological independence in the domestic satellite communications field and supporting domestic participating companies to secure space verification history (heritage). In addition, they plan to expand domestic and international cooperation to create a low-orbit satellite communications ecosystem and revitalize the industry.

ETRI’s President Bang Seung Chan said, “This project is expected to enable the world’s first verification of a low-orbit satellite communication system based on the 6G international standard, and is expected to be an important opportunity for domestic technologies to enter the global telecommunications service market.”

1) Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN): As a satellite communication standardization item promoted by 3GPP, it started standardization from 3GPP Rel-17 and is currently in the process of Rel-19 standardization, and is considered as a representative standardization item of 6G. This project aims to develop based on the 3GPP NTN Rel-21 standard, which is the first standard of 6G.

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The research is part of the ‘Development of a Low-Earth Orbit Satellite Communication System Based on 6G International Standards’ project of the Ministry of Science and ICT, Korea Aerospace Administration, and the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP).