WASHINGTON – Lockheed Martin announced on November 16 that it plans to launch a payload into orbit next year to demonstrate 5G connectivity from space. The experiment is part of a larger project known as 5G.MIL, which the company launched in 2020 in response to military demand for high-speed wireless communications.
By deploying the latest cellular technology into space, the company hopes to eventually create what it calls an “all domain network” – a seamless communications network between space assets, aircraft, ships and ground forces. thinking.
Dan Rice, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s 5G.MIL program, said the company successfully completed hardware-in-the-loop testing of a 5G non-terrestrial network payload in October and is moving forward with plans to launch a low-lying satellite. said. It will enter orbit in 2024 for space demonstrations.
He said the payload is the industry’s first regenerative advanced 5G satellite base station for non-terrestrial networks. The regenerative payload enables direct satellite-based communications, bypassing terrestrial networks if desired. Satellite base stations communicate with other satellites and ground stations. In a regenerative base station, the signal processing and radio access network are mounted on a satellite.
While private companies are demonstrating 5G from space, network processing functions will be performed on the ground, and satellites will be relay nodes connecting the ground and users. “In our case, the radio access network, all the software and hardware, the core network that does the user authentication are all on the satellite payload itself,” Rice said. “This creates additional resiliency when the satellite is operating over areas where secure communication with the ground is not established.”
In laboratory tests, satellite base stations and ground-based user equipment were connected and data was successfully transferred, including live video streaming.
Lockheed Martin said its 5G network complies with the industry standard 3GPP Release 17. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) develops wireless communication standards that provide global consistency.
5G payloads were developed using open radio access networks, allowing mobile service providers to build their networks using non-proprietary and interoperable subcomponents.
In another live field demonstration in early October, Rice said Lockheed Martin established a hybrid land, air and space network that includes 5G connectivity and other tactical networks used by the military. It is said that he did. The test included his five hybrid base stations with 5G, tactical data links, and space backhaul.
potential customers
The company is considering several options to bring this technology to market. One includes commercial partners and serves the Department of Defense as part of the Lockheed Martin 5G Private Network. It also has the potential to provide satellite payloads to commercial mobile network operators. Rice said Lockheed Martin has worked with Verizon to show that a single terminal can be used to migrate from a private network to Verizon’s public network.
“We have focused on reducing the size and power of these networks so that they can be introduced and deployed in more austere environments integrated into aircraft, ground vehicles, and ships.” says Rice.
“We’re going to bring our infrastructure home,” he said. The terminal will be mounted on a vehicle and integrated directly into the aircraft, either in a pod or on the aircraft skin.
Building a standards-based network is important, Rice said. “We will have access to a large amount of user equipment that is compliant with the Release 17 standard, which will also reduce the cost of user equipment.”
Companies fund space demos
Joe Rickards, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of connectivity, transportation and access, said the space demonstration is fully funded by the company, but he could not reveal the exact cost.
“This is a pretty big undertaking for us,” he said. space news.
Rickers said the emergence of interoperability standards between ground and space networks was a major advance that motivated Lockheed Martin to invest in this demonstration.
The 5G payload, which is about the size of a microwave oven, has begun environmental testing and has been mounted on a small satellite bus similar to those the company builds for the Space Development Agency’s low-orbit satellites. The specific launch date and launch vehicle have not yet been decided.
Rickards said Lockheed Martin is in discussions with multiple wireless providers and satellite communications companies interested in 5G payloads for low-Earth orbit satellites. “We’re looking at a lot of potential partners,” he said.
“Space will be a major driver in enabling the use of 5G on a variety of platforms,” Rickards said. “Cost has slowed adoption. We need standards to make this work across the industry.”
“We have advanced to the point where we can connect the earth and space,” he said. “It’s really starting to come together. There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’ve made a lot of progress.”
