Licensed shared access testbed for integrated satelliteterrestrial communications: The ASCENT project

The ASCENT project studies spectrum sharing betweensatellite and cellular networks using a Licensed SharedAccess (LSA) approach, in which information stored in adatabase is exploited to enable spectrum sharing betweenusers. The project focuses on one side 5G pioneer bands 3.4-3.8 GHz and 24.25-27.5 GHz, which are well-recognised assatellite frequency bands, and on the other side on legacyIMT frequency bands. We identified different spectrumsharing scenarios and defined four use cases. We havedeveloped an LSA system testbed, which is used to study andvalidate the interest of the LSA approach insatellite/terrestrial sharing scenarios.The results of our simulations and the tests realized on thetestbed show that the LSA approach could be used toimprove spectrum sharing between satellite and terrestrialnetworks. This approach could be envisaged to facilitatespectrum sharing between terrestrial mobile network such asInternational Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) and satellitenetworks operating in a same frequency band. Such anapproach could offer new spectrum sharing opportunitieswhich could benefit to both mobile and satellite community.The LSA testbed and the results of the project will be furtherutilized to develop and assess new sharing scenarios thatcould lead to creating new spectrum opportunities fordifferent radiocommunication systems