Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) will provide the general organization for the construction of what is claimed to be the world’s first low-orbit satellite communication (SATCOM) system based on the 6G standard of 3GPP.
Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Administration has assigned three different aspects to the “Development of Low Earth Orbit Satellite Communication System Based on 6G International Standards” project.
“This project is expected to enable the world’s first verification of a low-orbit satellite communication system based on the 6G international standard and is expected to be an important opportunity for domestic technologies to enter the global telecommunications service market,” said Bang Seung Chan, president of the ETRI.
The project
The system will consist of two low-orbit communications satellites, a ground station and a terminal station by 2030. Korea will develop a low-orbit SATCOM pilot network by building a communication satellite and ground system that performs satellite-to-ground and satellite-to-satellite communication functions.
ETRI will work among research institutes to carry out large-scale system projects and will be responsible for the development of the core technologies together with Hanwha Systems, LIG Nex1 and Satrec Initiative.
Solid will develop the terminal station under Assignment 2 as part of the project and Assignment 3 will be led by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) to develop the satellite body and system integration.
Korean electronics vendors KT, KT SAT and SK Telecom as well as LG U+ will participate in the project for the system development and laying the foundation for future commercialization of SATCOM 6G.
ETRI will secure technologies such as:
- Core technology for regenerative repeaters
- Payload digital signal processing technology
- Inter-satellite link technology
- High efficiency phased array antenna technology
Overall, the project will be used to lay the foundation for the era of hyperspace communication that will include ground and air communication. While current SATCOM services are driven by Spacex, Eutelsat OneWeb and Amazon, these are proprietary technologies.
The program led by ETRI will develop international standard technologies to increase openness and universality to choose what type of terminal model they want, such as smartphones and internet communication services, the organization said.
