Satellite Communications in 5G Networks

Dear Colleagues,

The role of satellite networks is of utmost importance for providing ubiquitous Internet services. Due to their broadcasting ability and global coverage at standard cost, satellites present an effective communication platform capable of relaying radio signals virtually between any points on Earth. In the upcoming 5G era, the future cellular and satellite communication networks should be envisioned to support efficient and flexible resources management and provide customized services to meet the service-specific high-performance requirements in a variety of use cases. New higher frequency bands are also allocated for employment in the future cellular and satellite networks in order to support the new challenging demands by the users that generally need more bandwidth. The propagation channel plays the most crucial role in order to provide reliable communications, high availability and determine the system dimensioning (number of antennas, relays, etc.). The novelty on which 5G communication systems will establish and will make the system to be more agile, smart and robust is the exploitation of the Software Defined Networks (SDN), the Network Function Virtualizations (NFV) and the Artificial Intelligence (including Machine and Deep Learning) techniques. Therefore, the role of satellites should be investigated for the provision of the main services of 5G systems such as enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Ultra reliable low latency communications (URLLC), and machine or massive type of communications (mTC) for Machine to machine (M2M) communications.

This Special Issue aims at collecting original studies on advanced satellite communication technologies innovative architectures that combine various modalities, experiments that deploy prototype satellite systems, and the exploration of new frequency bands and orbits.

Prof. Athanasios D. Panagopoulos
Dr. Charilaos I. Kourogiorgas
Dr. Spiros Ventouras
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Future Internet is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.