Integrating non-terrestrial and terrestrial communications systems will achieve 3D coverage of the Earth. Wireless coverage is expected to expand from 2D ‘population coverage’ on the ground surface to 3D ‘global and space coverage’. Non-terrestrial communications, such as satellite communications, will support an inclusive world and enable new applications in a cost-effective way. 2 Driving Factors and Motivations 2.1 Requirements Section IV identifies the challenges and potential solutions that might require a long-term effort for developing a competitive VLEO-based NTN. Section III summarizes the usage scenarios and applications that have mostly have gained the consensus of both academia and the industry. The remaining parts of this paper are organized as follows: Section II introduces the driving factors and motivations of VLEO-based NTN networks according to the latest progress from the industrial community. A comprehensive discussion of the vision and challenges of VLEO-based NTN for 6G will be presented in this paper. To achieve the successful commercialization of VLEO-based NTN, new usage scenarios and applications need to be explored and a few technical challenges need to be addressed. NTN with an ultra-dense VLEO constellation will be a part of the 6G network and play an essential role in ensuring extremely flexible communication access services. 6G NTN will begin from Release 20, and more enhancements and new features will be discussed, including but not limited to support for integrating terrestrial networks (TN) and NTN and improving spectral efficiency over 5G and 5G-Advanced NTN. NR basic features will be supported by both regenerative and transparent satellite systems in Release 17 to Release 19. In Release 17, the first work item (WI) of New Radio Non-terrestrial Network (NR-NTN) and Internet of Things Non-terrestrial Network (IoT-NTN) were approved at the end of 2019. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has officially started researching on integrating satellite communications with 5G New Radio (NR) techniques titled "non-terrestrial network (NTN)." The study item (SI) of NTN (Release 14 to Release 16) identifies NTN scenarios, architectures, basic NTN issues and related solutions, and 12 potential use cases by considering the integration of satellite access in the 5G network including roaming, broadcast/multicast, and Internet of Things (IoT). The global communications ecosystem believes satellite-based communications to be an important part of 5G-Advanced and 6G. These features will contribute to wider global utilization. Compared to LEO and GEO satellites, communications based on mega VLEO constellations benefit from features such as low transmission delay, smaller propagation loss, high area capacity, and lower manufacturing and launch costs. The idea of Very-Low-Earth-Orbit (VLEO) at an altitude of around 350 km has the potential to change the paradigm for the Internet because it is much lower than the traditional low Earth orbit (LEO) at 600 km to 1200 km and geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) at 35,768 km. Ottawa Wireless Advanced System Competency Centre. Authors (all from Huawei 6G research team): Hejia Luo 1, Xueliang Shi 1, Ying Chen 1, Xian Meng 1, Feiran Zhao 1, Michael Mayer 2, Peter Ashwood Smith 2, Bill McCormick 2, Arashmid Akhavain 2, Daqing Liu 1, Huailin Wen 1, Yu Wang 1, Xiaolu Wang 1, Ruonan Yang 1, Rong Li 1, Bin Wang 1, Jun Wang 1, Wen Tong 2
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