Radio Resource Management in Future Terrestrial-Satellite Communication Networks

Satellite communication networks can provide the most comprehensive wireless coverage, especially for low-density population areas, which can act as a complement of terrestrial cellular networks. To achieve 100 percent ubiquitous coverage, terrestrial-satellite communication networks (TSNs) have been considered as a promising architecture in the next generation networks. In this article, we introduce three main technical challenges that need to be taken into account in radio resource management of future TSNs: spectrum resource management, beam resource management, and cross-layer power management. We overview the literatures of each technical issue and introduce possible solutions based on our recent works on each issue, as well as potential future research directions. Overall, this article aims to provide a comprehensive survey on the motivation, problem formulation, and research methodology on the radio resource management of future terrestrial-satellite networks.