Integrated Terrestrial-HAPS-Satellite Networks of the Future: Towards A Sustainable ICT Ecosystem

In this talk, a novel wireless infrastructure will be presented which includes a new aerial access layer composed of HAPS (high altitude platform station) constellations positioned in stratosphere, 20 km above the ground, in addition to the legacy terrestrial layer and the emerging satellite layer.  With its bird’s-eye and almost-line-of-sight view of an entire metropolitan area, a HAPS is more than a base station in the air; it is a new architecture paradigm with access, transport, and core network functionalities for integrated connectivity, computing, sensing, positioning, navigation, and surveillance, towards enabling a variety of use-cases in an agile, smart, and sustainable manner for smart cities and societies of the future. The talk will feature a number of enabling technologies for the envisioned architecture including RIS (reconfigurable intelligent surfaces) and advanced antennas.