Satellite-Assisted Low-Altitude Economy Networking: Concepts, Applications, and Opportunities

2025-05-07

AI Summary

To address weak communication coverage, control latency, and insufficient navigation support for Low-Altitude Vehicles (LAVs) in remote areas within the emerging low-altitude economy, this paper proposes a satellite-assisted low-altitude network architecture. The method introduces a distributed space–ground MIMO joint transmission framework and a dual-timescale resource optimization mechanism to enable integrated coordination of communication, control, and edge computing. Key technical innovations include dynamic channel modeling, two-stage resource allocation, and adaptive low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite–LAV link configuration. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed architecture significantly reduces transmission power consumption, extends LAV flight endurance, and effectively mitigates reliability degradation caused by high mobility and severe path loss—thereby enhancing operational robustness in remote regions.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Application Domains: Mobility, Driving & Flight
• Multiagent Systems: Agent Communication

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Energy management for devices in mobile Web and WoT environments
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Cost models of using LLMs in production systems
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy

Abstract

The low-altitude economy (LAE) is a new economic paradigm that leverages low-altitude vehicles (LAVs) to perform diverse missions across diverse areas. To support the operations of LAE, it is essential to establish LAE networks that enable LAV management and communications.Existing studies mainly reuse terrestrial networks to construct LAE networks. However, the limited coverage of terrestrial networks poses challenges for serving LAVs in remote areas. Besides, efficient LAV operations also require support such as localization and navigation, which terrestrial networks designed for communications cannot fully provide. Due to ubiquitous coverage and diverse functions, satellites are a promising technology to support LAVs. Therefore, this article investigates satellite-assisted LAE networking. First, we introduce an overview of LAE and satellites, discussing their features, applications, and architectures. Next, we investigate opportunities for satellites to assist LAE from aspects of communication, control, and computation. As all assistance depends on reliable satellite-LAV communications, we propose a satellite-assisted LAE framework to tackle issues caused by the severe path loss and high dynamics in satellite-assisted LAE networks.The case study demonstrates that the distributed MIMO architecture efficiently reduces the required transmission power and extends service duration, while the two-timescale optimization scheme balances the performance and control signaling overheads. Specifically, the proposed framework comprises distributed satellite MIMO, distributed LAV MIMO, and a two-timescale optimization scheme.

Problem

• Enabling reliable satellite-LAV communications for LAE networks
• Addressing limited terrestrial network coverage in remote areas
• Integrating satellite support for LAV operations beyond communication

Innovation

• Satellite-assisted LAE networking framework
• Distributed MIMO architecture for efficiency
• Two-timescale optimization balances performance