ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO9748
Open Date: 09/06/2020
Closing Date: 02/09/2020 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 19.1TT.29
Prog. Ref.: CC for Advanced Tech
Budget Ref.: E/0505-01C – CC for Advanced Tech
Special Prov.: BE+DK+FR+DE+IT+NL+ES+SE+CH+GB+IE+AT+NO+FI+PT+GR+LU+CZ+RO+CA
Tender Type: C
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Products: Satellites & Probes / System Engineering Software / System Modelling & Simulation / Other
Technology Domains: RF Systems, Payloads and Technologies / Telecommunication Systems/Subsystems / Networking Techniques
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate Telecom & Integrated Applica
Department: Telecom Technologies,Product&Systems Dep
Division: Future Projects Division
Contract Officer: Mezzadri, Monica
Industrial Policy Measure: C1 – Activities in open competition limited to the non-Larg…
Last Update Date: 09/06/2020
Update Reason: Tender issue

The objective of the activity is to develop network configuration mechanisms that can deploy internet-of-things services over satellite with minimum lead-time. The activity includes the development of the necessary interfaces to integrate such serviceswith 5G sliced network concepts and protocols. The network management mechanisms will be validated and demonstrated as a minimum ina test-bed or, if available, in a live network. Targeted Improvements: Enabling integration of satellite IoT services in 5G networks.Description: Some satellite networks that are currently providing machine-to-machine services were primarily designed for Internet broadband applications and to provide the maximum quality of service (QoS) as perceived by a human user. However, Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications exhibit traffic characteristics and performance requirements that are utterly different from the Internet broadband applications most satellite systems were designed for. This not only refers to the reservation-based Medium Access Control (MAC) protocolsand the Radio Resource Management (RRM), but also to all the compression, security, and acceleration middleboxes on theend-to-end path. For example, the middle boxes are designed to minimise latency perceived by the human user of browsing, multimedia,and voice applications. Even so, some IoT applications could work with the reservation-based MAC protocols used by satellites yet some others would require random access mechanisms. In either case, the core network is still designed for Internet broadband and theresource management algorithms at the Network Control Centre (NCC) still need adaptations to deal with the peculiarities of IoT applications. Besides meeting the IoT service requirements, the adaptations will need to support rapid and dynamic service deployment with highly granular quality of service and billing profiles as expected in future networks. Hardware virtualisation and application containerisation are key enabling technologies forthis to happen. These technologies were exploited by SDN (Software Defined Network) and NFV (Network Function Virtualisation) technologies to enable dynamic orchestration of networks. 5G standardisation efforts extrapolate thesetechnologies to the extreme, under the term “network slicing”. This activity will develop the necessary adaptations to the Radio Resource Management (RRM) algorithms of a satellite communication network to support IoT services. As a minimum, admission control, return link scheduling, link adaptation, congestion control, contention channel sizing, admission control and access prioritisation mechanisms will be addressed. The activity will follow 5G standardization efforts to make the resulting functions compatible with proposed open network slicing protocols. The activity will validate the developments as a minimum in a test bed or, if available, in a live network.Procurement Policy: C(1) = Activity restricted to non-prime contractors (incl. SMEs). For additional information please go to EMITS news “Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and RD entities in ESA programmes”.