Ka-band high throughput satellites for 5G based applications: The athena-fidus case study

The 5G standardization activities are going to be finalized. The full set of specifications for the next generation telecommunication systems, which will be based on flexible network management and new services definition, is expected for mid 2018 (release 15) and for mid 2019 (release 16). At the same time, High Throughput Satellite (HTS) platforms faced a wide adoption for the provision of Internet access and are recently gaining a significant interest as complementary connectivity able to support 5G architectures, leading to significant investments for the development and deployment of future platforms. In the view of a synergy between terrestrial and satellite networks to provide 5G services, the satellite access can play a meaningful role to support/complement terrestrial networks for its peculiar characteristics of coverage, broadcasting/multicasting, synchronization, etc. To this aim, the system availability and bandwidths available must be carefully assessed when the hybrid network is tailored to specific 5G services. The Athena Fidus system has been realized to support civil and governmental services and is today operational. In this paper, the characteristics of Athena Fidus DVB-S2/DVB-RCS links are considered to identify the set of services that will be possible to offer, focusing on nominal IP-based bandwidth and availability. The objective is to draw the operational context to be considered for the potential utilization of Athena Fidus in the next communication systems. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019.