2021 - WORKSHOP ON SATELLITE MEGA-CONSTELLATIONS IN THE 6G ERA: UNPRECEDENTED OPPORTUNITIES AND UNPRECEDENTED CHALLENGES

There is rejuvenated interest in satellite communications & networking. Both the satellite and 3GPP industries aim at developing a seamlessly integrated one network. One main difference between the legacy satellite systems and the mega-constellations of the 6G era satellite system is the networking aspect with very high-speed inter-satellite links. For efficient operation, the network will have to be autonomous, intelligent, resilient, self-organizing & self-controlling to reduce the cost and risk of human intervention. Distributed decision making, fault recovery, resilience, and scalability are among the important features. These networks will rely on AI techniques at all levels: Ground operations, on-board operations, inter-satellite and satellite-to-ground links. The satellite mega-constellations in the 6G era will create unprecedented opportunities once the unprecedented challenges are addressed by the research community.