A 5G terminal in a compact satellite
5G Nanosatellite develops a satellite-borne 5G terminal and the ground infrastructure it communicates with. The mission concept places an OpenAirInterface-based user terminal on an RFSoC platform inside a compact CubeSat, communicating with terrestrial base stations. Ground evaluation prepares the radio and protocol implementation for changing satellite-link conditions.
Motion changes propagation time, frequency offset and available signal margin together. The satellite terminal and ground base station must manage access and useful traffic under those conditions. A conducted test separates the programmed link case from endpoint configuration before a future orbital demonstration.
ELARA emulates the satellite link in the conducted ground setup between an OpenAirInterface base station and user equipment. The reported setup uses software-defined radios at both endpoints. This lets the team examine access and traffic under programmed conditions while the mission hardware and network implementation are developed.
| Condition | Observation | Engineering question |
|---|---|---|
| Delay and Doppler profiles | UE/gNB acquisition and synchronisation records | Where does the radio implementation need timing or frequency adaptation? |
| Signal-level variation | Connection state and useful-traffic records | How sensitive is the configured link to its available signal margin? |
| Time-varying pass scenario | Endpoint events aligned with channel inputs | Does access and traffic behavior follow the expected portion of the pass? |
ESA ARTES 4.0 / Space for 5G, co-funded research.
Project roles