PAGE CONTENTS
Objectives
During the last years, several waveforms and Physical Layer enhancements have been proposed as potential 6G candidates. However, no official consensus has yet emerged within 3GPP regarding the most suitable ones, particularly for NTN. This highlights the need for rigorous, end-to-end performance evaluations under realistic satellite channel conditions and with representative implementation constraints. STARGATE addresses this gap by developing a comprehensive end-to-end demonstrator for candidate 6G NTN waveforms. The overarching objective is to assess, compare, and validate the performance, feasibility, and implementation readiness of these waveforms against the 5G benchmark in representative NTN scenarios. Such demonstrator provides a representative emulation of the User Equipment, propagation channel and impairments, and NTN payload. STARGATE leverages the unique time window opened by the current 3GPP roadmap, which has seen the postponement of the activities related to the definition of waveforms for 6G NTN following the completion of the on-going Beyond 5G studies. As such, STARGATE has the ambition to position the European industries in a proactive role in defining future NTN waveforms, going beyond the current 5G baseline and anticipating 6G developments.
Benefits
The integrated end-to-end testbed demonstrator to be developed in the STARGATE Project will provide a realistic validation platform capable of supporting technology down-selection, standardisation input, and future commercial exploitation. As such, the outcomes of this Study will allow the European industrial and research ecosystems to anticipate the evolution of 6G waveforms for NTN, generating proprietary know-how on procedures and algorithms, system configurations, and performance metrics that can then be exploited in future endeavours targeting higher TRLs and in 3GPP / ETSI standardisation.
Features
The integrated end-to-end testbed demonstrator to be developed for the evaluation of the identified 6G candidate waveforms will provide a controlled yet realistic environment where waveform candidates can be subjected to a comprehensive performance assessment across multiple dimensions, including spectral efficiency, latency, robustness to Doppler effects, and resilience to non-linear distortions, while also benchmarking them against the current 5G Air Interface. The architectural foundation of this testbed demonstrator centres on the components that collectively replicate the complete signal chain from transmission to reception, with the SmartgNB from Celeste Technologies at its core.
Challenges
The Study is targeting a relatively low TRL and, as such, the main challenges are related to the integration of all the designed algorithms and components into a complete end-to-end demonstrator. Such challenges might include unexpected performance or complexity issues. In addition, due to the specific focus on waveform standardisation for 6G NTN, alignment with 3GPP shall be guaranteed as much as possible, which calls for a careful activity planning taking into account both the project and 3GPP Rel. 20-21 timelines.
System Architecture
The integrated end-to-end testbed demonstrator will feature: i) the SmartgNB from Celeste Technologies and a Core Network implemented on a COTS platform, serving as the anchor point with the ability to configure the candidate waveforms in substitution of those defined by the current 5G specifications; and ii) an open-source software-defined User Equipment fully implementing Layers 1-3 on another COTS platform, with one or more instances depending on the considered scenario. The connection between the transmission and reception side (both directions will be tested) will be realised via a channel emulator to be defined during the Study, which encompasses satellite-specific phenomena, including significant Doppler frequency shifts resulting from the high relative velocities between the NTN platforms and the on-ground UEs, time-varying delay profiles as satellite geometry changes, substantial free-space path loss over distances spanning hundreds to thousands of kilometres, atmospheric absorption, and scintillation effects.
Plan
The project is structured in 3 phases: i) Phase 1 “Framework and technical baseline,” in which the use cases, scenarios, performance and technical requirements are identified for a subset of candidate waveforms; ii) Phase 2 “Consolidated design,” dedicated to the detailed design of the candidate waveforms, and the related procedures and algorithms, benchmarking the performance against 5G NR-NTN; iii) Phase 3 “Technology implementation and assessment,” dedicated to the implementation of the end-to-end demonstrator and the performance assessment of the designed waveforms targeting TRL 4. The STARGATE Team will also contribute to 3GPP standardisation if deemed relevant/possible in agreement with the Agency.
Current Status
The Project was kicked-off on June 15 and the current activities are dedicated to the definition of the use cases, scenarios, and Key Performance Indicators to be considered throughout the study. In mid-July, the consortium will begin the review of candidate 6G NTN waveforms to identify those to be implemented in the demonstrator.
