Lunar Access Network Supporting 5G and Beyond

Lunar Access Network Supporting 5G and Beyond ndash; Phase II: MTI Systems, as a follow on to Phase I feasibility results will develop and mature capabilities for implementing lunar 5G. Phase I products included Lunar 3GPP radio access network requirements, resource requirements for lunar 5G New Radio access network processing, plans to realize a flexible access network in lunar qualified hardware, Phase II technology development plans, and a final report. Using these results, MTI Systems will develop test and demonstrate with suitable flight like hardware and emulated gNodeB, and base station, a 5G User Equipment software stack to mature the UE software to TRL 6. As an integral part of this effort, the software will be developed so that it is ready to be matured for flight demonstration. The set of features to implement UE software for the lunar environment does not currently exist and implementing it for lunar exploration application with very low Size Weight and Power (SWaP) is very challenging. 3GPP based lunar communications introduces a whole new paradigm for space communications systems and networking leveraging a vast and growing commercial technology base for terrestrial communication which provides many advantages over legacy approaches such as high bandwidth, scalability, efficiency, low cost, and efficient use of spectrum. MTI Systems will implement in an Open RAN approach to enable a competitive and diverse ecosystem of compatible communications equipment as well as interoperability and the ability to rapidly mature the software for human-rated application.