Future Lunar surface comms using Cognitive 3gpp Radio Access Networks for Ubiquitous Mission success (FULCRUM)

AiRANACULUS, a Boston-based startup and developer of NASA sponsored CLAIRE and INSPiRE technologies, along with, RadiSys, Reed Engineering (Prof. Jeff Reed, Virginia Tech, IEEE Fellow and Dr. Nishith Tripathi, NTN expert) and Prof. Ricardo Lent (DTN Expert, U. of Houston) propose Future Lunar comms architecture using Cognitive 3gpp Radio Access Networks for Ubiquitous Mission success (FULCRUM), that provides cognitive delay tolerant Networking leveraging disparate technologies such as 4G / 5G / 5G-NTN, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LoRa as well as Legacy NASA Radios. This enables resilient communications and reduces the probability of outage. FULCRUM will reduce the mission and network operations burden, increase mission science data return, improve resource efficiencies for NASA missions and communication networks, reduce power consumption, and ensure resilience in the unpredictable space environment. FULCRUM will be enhanced by the NASA sponsored CLAIRE and INSPiRE technologies, which are protocol agnostic and may be applied to 4G / 5G / Wi-Fi and legacy NASA Radios. FULCRUM architecture, incorporating CLAIRE and INSPiRE as xAPPs / rAPPs, create the next generation Software Defined Network (SDN) for Lunar and Earth Data Networks (LDN / EDN) over heterogeneous wireless communications technologies. FULCRUM uses published Release 17 5G specifications and the ongoing 3GPP Release 18 work to specify network architectures to facilitate connectivity between surface and orbital assets for trunk links, continuous coverage of the lunar south pole and far side, as well as potential direct-to-handheld orbital 5G links. Specifically, the project uses 3GPP features such as the Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN), Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB), 5G NR sidelink communications, network slicing, local breakout (LBO), and simultaneous 3GPP access and non-3GPP access.
Benefits: 1. FULCRUM uses of mature 5G O-RAN technology based on 3GPP Release 17 and 18 (e. g. RadiSys and Intel FlexRAN) that provides seamless connectivity for Lunar surface, Lunar Proximity and Cislunar Trunk Links through flexible and efficient COTS network architecture utilizing Non-terrestrial Networks (NTN), Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) and Sidelink using software enhancements. This enables NASA to leverage commercial open solutions that can scale. 2. FULCRUM leverages IAB that enables network scaling without the need to lay optical fibers for backhaul on the Lunar surface. IAB leverages the spectral efficiencies of New Radio (NR) and the increased capacity afforded by the higher bands available in 5G that is perfect for Lunar environment where it would be challenging to lay optical fibers. 3. FULCRUM leverages NASA INSPiRE’ s Network Slicing over a heterogeneous wireless network which allows NASA to maintain Quality of Service (QoS) for a wide variety of application in challenging scenarios. It maintains QoS over 3GPP and Non 3GPP technologies and provides 10x improvement in communications quality in presence of interference and congestion using policy-based packet prioritization and dynamic routing. 4. INSPiRE and CLAIRE technologies provide interference mitigation and congestion control for ANY radio and network They provide variety of interference mitigation and congestion control techniques such as Dynamic Spectrum and Bandwidth Adaptation, Multipath Routing, Traffic Shaping, Spectrum Aware Packet Forwarding. Wideband RF Sensing allows communications equipment to be re-configured to reduce interference into sensitive radio astronomy equipment. 5. HDTN Optimization through accurate contact plan and capacity estimations provided by INSPiRE and CLAIRE enable robust and efficient communication pathways between lunar surface devices and orbiting satellites, using optimal DTN overlay routing on 3GPP networks utilizing IAB and NTN. AiRANACULUS' motto is Intelligent RF and Networking from Space to Smart Cities. This effort falls within AiRANACULUS’ s general strategy to make ALL radios robust and resilient to interference and congestion using state-of-the-art signal processing, and machine learning based Products. FULCRUM Architecture and capabilities are applicable to: 1. Advanced communications systems such as 5G and 6G New Radio Architectures and make them interference and congestion tolerant. FULCRUM has a fantastic potential for the private network market for 5G and 6G. The total 5G market is expected to climb to nearly $665 billion by 2028. FULCRUM capabilities are applicable to ALL commercial Terrestrial (3G/ 4G/ 5G / Wi-Fi), Space (LEO/ MEO / GEO/ Relays / Gateways) Networks which leverage commercial heterogeneous networks. 2. Command and Control (C2) constructs such as Joint All Domain C2 (JADC2):- FULCRUM technology makes any Radio Cognitive / Intelligent through RF and Cross Layer sensing which enables root cause analysis of the interference and network congestion. Application Layer Cognitive Control Plane enables radio and technology agnostic Command and Control (C2) which will fulfill the needs of JADC2. FULCRUM provides wide variety of interference and congestion mitigation techniques that ensures that most critical data and command and control information is delivered to the warfighters when they need it. The Network Slicing aspects, allowing tailorable qualities of experiences for heterogeneous networks sharing common communications channels, is also somewhat unique. AiRANACULUS is also working with the Army to make its radios and networks robust and resilient to interference and congestion. 3. Space (LEO/ MEO / Gateways) – There is an increasing concern of interference between the Non-Terrestrial Network the Terrestrial Network systems (e. g. Dish and SpaceX discussions). FULCRUM technology can play a crucial role to reduce co-channel interference.