SNMIC 2022 : Special Issue: Satellite Networks for Massive IoT Communication

Dear Colleagues,

The growing need to interconnect sensors and devices anytime, anywhere is stimulating the design and development of innovative solutions for efficiently supporting massive access applications. In particular, there is a growing interest for techniques and technologies capabable to support a host of applications: from simple low-duty cycle sensors for which energy efficiency and low-cost are of paramount importance, to more demanding platforms (e.g. automotive) hosting several sensors requiring telemetry support with global coverage. Terrestrial networks are increasingly expanding their capability to support Internet of Things (IoT) kind of services through 4G/5G cellular networks operating in licensed bands and Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) operating in unlicensed bands. These deployments will be complemented with satellite networks, to cover areas where terrestrial service cannot be provided and ensure full ubiquity. This requires, however, dedicated research and solutions for the limits imposed by satellites when providing access to a massive number of devices. In recent years we witnessed a blossoming in research about random access techniques for satellite communications. Interestingly, some of the new ideas developed found practical applications in satellite networks and have been triggering attention in the terrestrial wireless community for massive access. This special issue of Sensors is aiming at collecting state-of-the-art research paper related to random access techniques and technologies for satellite communications.

Keywords:

Capacity analysis and fundamental performance tradeoffs
Efficient random access techniques for satellite networks
Network architecture and protocol design for massive access via satellite solutions
Technologies for satellite Internet of Things networks
Low-power satellite telemetry devices
Satellite constellations for IoT applications
Privacy and security guarantees for massive IoT from space
Random access in 3GPP Non-Terrrestrial Networks and beyond
Results from real-world deployments, experiments, prototypes and testbeds


Dr. Riccardo De Gaudenzi
Dr. Beatriz Soret
Guest Editors