Abstract:
As space agencies are planning manned missions to reach Mars, researchers need to pave the way for supporting
astronauts during their sojourn. This will also be achieved by providing broadband and low-latency connectivity
through wireless network infrastructures. In such a framework, we propose a Martian deployment of a 3-Dimensional
(3D) network acting as Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN). The scenario consists, mostly, of unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) and nanosatellites. Thanks to the thin Martian atmosphere, CubeSats can stably orbit at very-low-
altitude. This allows to meet strict delay requirements to split functions of the baseband processing between drones
and CubeSats. The detailed analytical study, presented in this paper, confirmed the viability of the proposed 3D
architecture, under some constraints and trade-off concerning the involved Space communication infrastructures,
that are discussed in detail.
astronauts during their sojourn. This will also be achieved by providing broadband and low-latency connectivity
through wireless network infrastructures. In such a framework, we propose a Martian deployment of a 3-Dimensional
(3D) network acting as Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN). The scenario consists, mostly, of unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) and nanosatellites. Thanks to the thin Martian atmosphere, CubeSats can stably orbit at very-low-
altitude. This allows to meet strict delay requirements to split functions of the baseband processing between drones
and CubeSats. The detailed analytical study, presented in this paper, confirmed the viability of the proposed 3D
architecture, under some constraints and trade-off concerning the involved Space communication infrastructures,
that are discussed in detail.
