Towards Autonomous Satellite Communications: An AI-based Framework to Address System-level Challenges

Abstract

The next generation of satellite constellations is designed to better address the future needs of our connected society: highly-variable data demand, mobile connectivity, and reaching more under-served regions. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and learning-based methods are expected to become key players in the industry, given the poor scalability and slow reaction time of current resource allocation mechanisms. While AI frameworks have been validated for isolated communication tasks or subproblems, there is still not a clear path to achieve fully-autonomous satellite systems. Part of this issue results from the focus on subproblems when designing models, instead of the necessary system-level perspective. In this paper we try to bridge this gap by characterizing the systemlevel needs that must be met to increase satellite autonomy, and introduce three AI-based components (Demand Estimator, Offline Planner, and Real Time Engine) that jointly address them. We first do a broad literature review on the different subproblems and identify the missing links to the systemlevel goals. In response to these gaps, we outline the three necessary components and highlight their interactions. We also discuss how current models can be incorporated into the framework and possible directions of future work.

Satellite Routing for mobile users under uncertainty in High Throughput constellations

“…Other factors, like the use of higher frequency bands (i.e., Ku-band and Ka-band) play an important role, as more bandwidth is available compared to the use of lower frequency bands by legacy systems (i.e., L-band and S-band). This adaptability advantage enables operators to dynamically allocate resources according to demand scenarios, avoiding the inefficiencies associated with fixed resource allocations in traditional methods [8]. However, effectively leveraging this increased flexibility necessitates the development of intelligent systems by satellite operators.…”