Reflection on the Development of Satellite Communications and the Integration with Terrestrial Mobile Communications

With the further reduction in cost and the increase in bandwidth, as well as the increase in internet ap-plications, satellite communications are gradually shifting from a complementary role to becoming a fully integrated component of terrestrial communications networks. This paper firstly introduces the development of satellite commu-nications, mobile communications and the global space-terrestrial integrated network. We then propose the functional architecture and network architecture for the integration of satellite communications and terrestrial mobile commu-nications based on 5G core networks. Finally, in order to support the network of the future, four key technologies are presented, a space-terrestrial integrated air interface design, a multi-band space-terrestrial integrated transmission waveform design, space-terrestrial integrated switching and routing technology, along with spectrum sharing and inter-ference coordination technology, all necessary for the development of space-terrestrial integrated networks.