Adaptive Multi-Connectivity Activation for Throughput Enhancement in 5G and Beyond Non-Terrestrial Networks

Abstract

The Fifth Generation (5G) communications systems aim to serve such service classes as Ultra-Reliable Low La-tency Communications (URLLC), enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), and massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC). To meet the growing requirements posed to mobile networks, satellites can be used to complement the Terrestrial Networks (TNs), To increase the efficiency of the satellite communications involved, bandwidth-efficient techniques should be used. Multi-Connectivity (MC) is one of such techniques. In MC, a User Equipment (UE), for example, a smartphone, can be connected to multiple Next Generation Node Bs (gNBs). In this paper, we present an adaptive MC activation scheme for throughput en-hancement in 5G and beyond Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs).