| 摘 要： |
The evolution of 5G into beyond 5G and 6G networks aims at responding to the increasing need of our society of ubiquitous and continuous connectivity services in all areas of our life: from education to finance, from politics to health, from entertainment to environment protection. The next generation network communication infrastructure is called to support this increasing demand of connectivity by enforcing: energy- and cost-efficiency to guarantee environmental and economical sustainability; scalability, flexibility, and adaptability to ensure support to the heterogeneity of the service characteristics and constraints, as well as the variety of equipment; reliability and dependability to fulfil its role of critical infrastructure able to provide global connectivity no matter the social, political, or environmental situation. In this framework, non-terrestrial networks (NTN) are recognized to play a crucial role. It is in fact generally understood that the terrestrial network alone cannot provide the flexibility, scalability, adaptability, and coverage required to meet the above requirements, and the integration of the NTN component is a key enabler. In this framework, 3GPP has started to address the inclusion of technology enablers in the NR standard to support NTN. However, to fully exploit the potential of the NT component in an integrated terrestrial and NT architecture, several research and innovation challenges shall be addressed. In this paper, we first discuss the current development of NTN in 5G and then we present the vision of the role of NTN in B5G and 6G networks and we elaborate the corresponding research challenges.
5G向超5G和6G网络的演进，旨在满足社会在生活各个领域日益增长的无处不在、持续连接服务需求，涵盖教育、金融、政治、医疗、娱乐以及环境保护等各个方面。下一代网络通信基础设施应通过提升能源效率和降低成本，来支持这一不断增长的连接需求，从而保障环境与经济的可持续性。可扩展性、灵活性和适应性，以确保能够支持服务特性和约束的异构性以及设备的多样性；可靠性和可依赖性，以履行其作为关键基础设施的角色，无论社会、政治或环境状况如何，都能提供全球连接。在此框架下，非地面网络（NTN）被认识到发挥着至关重要的作用。事实上，人们普遍认为仅靠地面网络无法满足上述要求所需的灵活性、可扩展性、适应性和覆盖范围，而整合NTN组件正是实现这一目标的关键。在此背景下，3GPP已开始着手将技术支撑手段纳入NR标准，以支持NTN的发展。然而，要在集成的地面与NTN架构中充分挖掘NT组件的潜力，仍需解决若干研究与创新挑战。本文首先探讨了5G中NTN的当前发展情况，随后阐述了NTN在B5G和6G网络中的角色愿景，并进一步分析了相应的研究挑战。 |
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