Positioning 5G management interfaces for mega-constellations management (MegaMan)

Abstract

MegaMan is an ongoing research project (2017–2019) investigating the possibility of reusing 3GPP 5G management interfaces for satellite mega-constellations. During the coming decade, a large number of mega-constellations are expected be launched for providing global internet, IoT, or special services e.g. for military or maritime purposes. With a huge volume of network elements (the satellites) and subscribers, the satellite constellation operators will find themselves in a similar situation as the early GSM operators in the 1990s when no standardised management system interfaces were available. Through the MegaMan project we want to lower integration overheads and enable commercial-off-the-shelf management solutions for mega-constellations. This article presents a series of experiments conducted in the first half of the project to apply 5G Management Function services on live satellite and simulated constellations.