Smart Gateway Diversity Strategies for Q/V Feeder Links in SDN-Satellite Networks

With the continuous improvements in communication technologies, users are demanding services with even higher and higher performance. High Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been set for this purpose in defining the next upcoming generation of mobile communications (5G). New emerging use cases and applications are enriching the already vast plethora of services that users can exploit through the Internet. However, traditional terrestrial networks have some intrinsic limitations that cannot be overcome with technology enhancements. For example, the terrestrial infrastructure will never be able to reach certain areas due to physical constraints, such as oceans, or the lack of a proper economic advantage, such as under-populated rural and remote areas. Satellite networks are foreseen to help the terrestrial infrastructure in several ways, especially in boosting enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services in converged 5G-satellite systems. New frequency bands have to be considered in order to guarantee the high required data rates. However, additional aspects should also be considered in order to deal with some impairments, such as the severe weather impairments that satellites need to tackle at high frequencies (Q/V bands). This paper proposes a novel smart gateway diversity strategy and validates its design through simulation campaigns, whose preliminary results show important performance gains with respect to other solutions available from the existing state-of-the-art.