Large geographical regions of our planet remain uncovered by terrestrial network connections. Sparse and dense constellations of near-Earth orbit satellites can bridge this gap by providing Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity on a world-wide scale in a flexible and cost-effective manner. This paper presents a novel space-terrestrial integrated IoT network architecture spanning direct- and indirect-to-satellite access from IoT assets on the surface. Framed on the identified requirements, we analyze NB-IoT and LoRa/LoRaWAN features to put these technologies forward as appealing candidates for future satellite IoT deployments. Finally, we list and discuss the key open research challenges to be addressed in order to achieve a successful space-terrestrial IoT integration.
翻译:我们星球上的广大地理区域仍然通过地面网络连接而得以发现,近地轨道卫星星座粗糙而密集,能够以灵活和具有成本效益的方式在全世界范围提供物联网,从而缩小这一差距,本文件介绍了从地面的IoT资产直接间接进入卫星的新的空间-地球一体化IoT网络结构。我们根据已查明的要求分析了NB-IoT和LoRa/LoRaWAN的特征,以提出这些技术作为未来IoT卫星部署的候选物。最后,我们列举并讨论了为了成功实现空间-地球一体化而需要解决的关键的开放研究挑战。