Background

The demand for connectivity solutions has increased dramatically in recent years, mainly due to the development of new services that require connectivity everywhere and at any time, e.g. autonomous driving, smart cities and smart agriculture. Such requirements cannot be met with existing terrestrial cellular networks. In this context, the concept of the 3D network has been introduced, where the ground, air and space segments are integrated into a unified network to ensure seamless and global connectivity.

In the UB-ANT OpenLab "3D Networks", research is conducted towards the integration and optimization of 3D networks. The setup includes ground-based base stations, drones that act as flying base stations or as users, network components for space and various terrestrial users such as rovers and IoT nodes. The OpenLab integrates existing satellite services and replicates future satellite hardware using corresponding prototype boards.

The evaluation of near-standard (5G IOT/NR NTN, Rel. 17/18) as well as future transmission concepts (6G) is made possible by the use of very flexible HW platforms (SDR and market-ready platforms) and SW frameworks (srsRAN, OpenAirInterface). The OpenLab is already being used in the BMBF projects Open6GHub and 6G-TakeOff and in the ESA project AIComS together with industrial partners for testing and demonstrating NTN/3D functionalities in NTN/3D networks.

Facilities and Capabalities

Ongoing Cooperations

Use Case: Coverage Extension

Use Case: TN - NTN Handover