Abstract
High Altitude Platform Stations as IMT Base Stations (HIBS) are aerial platforms that will function as flying base stations. There are clear advantages to using these types of assets to extend communications coverage addressing existing digital gaps, especially in unserved or underserved communities. In this paper, HIBS is examined from the context of its integration with 5G new radio (NR) as a non-terrestrial network asset. The challenge of HIBS meeting the stringent operational reliability and availability targets of legacy telecommunication networks is explored. The work analyses the performance of HAPS/HIBS platform record holders, Zephyr and Loon in terms of their reliability and availability profiles in a telecoms operations environment. Findings conclude that while the mean time between failure (MTBF) of these platforms is improving, telecom operations demand higher reliability and availability performances making advanced platform redundancy an imperative for HIBS implementation.
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Anicho, O., Charlesworth, P.B., Baicher, G.S., Nagar, A. (2023). High Altitude Platform Stations as IMT Base Stations (HIBS): Reliability and Availability Analysis. In: Arai, K. (eds) Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2023, Volume 4. FTC 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 816. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47448-4_17
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