Day objective — UPF placement, mobility, slicing, policy steering & regulatory location, plus CHO and the NTN use-case landscape.
5G Core Integration for NTN
Every core function that has to change when the access network sits hundreds — or tens of thousands — of kilometres away.
- End-to-end architecture — React-Flow 5GS with transparent/regenerative payload + UPF central/edge/on-board, every N1/N2/N3/N4/N6 interface
- Every NF, and what NTN asks of it — AMF large TAs, SMF/UPF placement, NSSF slice continuity, PCF steering, AUSF/UDM reuse
- Network-verified UE location — one beam, three countries; multi-RTT spoof detection (Rel-17/18 regulatory)
- Mobility & tracking area — the earth-moving TAU storm vs earth-fixed TA mapping; discontinuous coverage
- Registration over the void — every NAS round trip × the radio RTT; NAS-timer stretch, ~3 s attach at GEO
- UPF placement & store-and-forward — the biggest latency lever; KPIs & 3GPP Rel-17/18/19 mapping
NTN Mobility & Beam Management
Mobility when the cell itself is moving — beam, satellite and gateway handovers driven by ephemeris prediction.
- Earth-fixed vs. earth-moving cells and the mobility model each implies
- Beam-to-beam handover within a satellite
- Satellite-to-satellite handover (LEO) & gateway / feeder-link switchover
- Conditional Handover (CHO) with NTN triggers: location-, time- & measurement-based, using ephemeris prediction
- Measurement reporting & neighbour planning for beams & satellites
Hybrid Terrestrial / Non-Terrestrial Networks
Keeping a session alive as a device crosses between terrestrial and satellite coverage.
- TN/NTN integration & access selection; dual-connectivity concepts
- Traffic steering & service continuity as a UE moves between terrestrial & satellite coverage
- Slice continuity & policy control across both segments
NTN Use Cases
Where NTN actually earns its keep — and the performance realities engineers must design around.
- Direct-to-device / direct-to-cell — smartphone-to-satellite, emergency messaging, device & antenna limits
- IoT over NTN — NB-IoT / eMTC, RedCap over NTN (Rel-19), store-and-forward for delay-tolerant sensing
- Verticals — rural broadband, maritime, aviation, disaster recovery, public safety, mining / oil & gas, connected vehicles
- Performance realities — TCP over high-RTT links, throughput limits, retransmission, QoS & slicing in NTN
Hands-on Lab 4 — End-to-End NTN Emulation & TN-vs-NTN Performance
Run the full core+RAN+UE stack under GEO and LEO delay profiles and measure exactly what high RTT does to TCP, throughput and retransmission.
End-to-End NTN Emulation & TN-vs-NTN Performance
⚡- 1Run the 5G NTN emulation with GEO & LEO delay profiles applied end to end
- 2Execute
iperf3throughput tests; capture TCP behaviour over each profile - 3Compare terrestrial vs. NTN latency, retransmission & throughput
- 4Observe slice / QoS behaviour and mobility events where supported
Day 4 Assessment
5GC integration, NAS timers, discontinuous coverage, mobility (earth-fixed TA, CHO), network-verified location, hybrid TN/NTN and use cases. 40 spec-cited questions.