Doppler Effect Mitigation in LEO-Based 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks

In recent years, integrating Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) components with 5G Terrestrial Networks (TN) has led to considerable attention from academia and industry, leading to the standardization of 5G-NTN in 3GPP. Among the various NTN solutions, a notable one is the Low Earth Orbit (LEO)-based 5G-NTN with a regenerative payload. This system stands out because it can provide latency and throughput levels similar to terrestrial 5G networks. However, a significant challenge in this integration arises from the substantial Doppler effect caused by the rapid movement of LEO satellites. This effect must be effectively addressed to establish a successful data link between the User Equipment (UE) and the gNodeB (gNB). This study proposes a simple yet efficient method to tackle this issue. The method involves using a regenerative LEO satellite-based 5G gNB, which pre-compensates the Doppler frequency with respect to its beam center before initiating any data transmission. Subsequently, the UE performs post-compensation to handle residual Doppler frequency and achieve accurate initial synchronization. We evaluated the performance through simulations and demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed system. The results indicate successful mitigation of Doppler effects, facilitating seamless communication between LEO satellite-based 5G NTN.