Envisaged Architecture of Non-Terrestrial Networks

New radio (NR) non-terrestrial network (NTN) being standardized by 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) enables users to access 3GPP NR networks via satellite. Recently, 3GPP has completed development of Release 18 and started development of Release 19 NR NTN specifications. In this paper, we explore the NR NTN architectures before and after Release 19. After discussing recent trends of NR NTN architecture evolution, a view on an envisaged architecture of NR NTN is presented.