5G Base-Station with Hardware Acceleration for Non-Terrestrial Networks on a Space-Grade System-on-Chip

Abstract

Delivering 5G connectivity from space to consumer
hardware via Non-Terrestrial Networks
serves a variety of safety and convenience usecases
for consumers. This transformation of the
cellular network incurs major technical changes,
with space-based base stations posing the main
disruption. Although a healthy competition between
space companies has been sparked, technical
details specifically from the satellite payload
perspective, i.e., satellite processing technology
and 5G stack integration, remain mostly proprietary
and undisclosed, hindering system understanding,
standards development, and overall
research. We present a heterogeneous payload
design for a completely on-board 5G base station
(gNodeB) using the next-generation spacequalified
VERSAL hardware, a multi-core CPU
platform, and a tightly integrated RF front-end.
We propose a ”processing split” by distributing
5G layers between these components and
show its benefits, particularly on the example of
a hardware-accelerated 5G PHY layer. A brief
technology readiness assessment and a discussion
on open points concludes this paper.