GNSS-Free Operation and Asynchronous Waveforms: Insights from ETSI NTN-6G Conference

Apr 3, 2024

Our CEO, Julie Duclercq, had the opportunity to attend the ETSI NTN-6G Conference on 3rd of April at ETSI premises in Sophia Antipolis, next to our TERNWAVES R&D office.

About the ETSI NTN-6G Conference

This ETSI conference, organized in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA), the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU), and the 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association (6G IA), focused on the future of Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN). It brought together over 200 standardization, research and industry experts from the mobile, satellite, and wider-space industries.

Why NTN matters for 6G

Non-Terrestrial Networks will complement terrestrial systems by integrating satellite and aerial connectivity into the 6G ecosystem. This is essential to provide coverage in remote areas, crisis zones, or conflict environments, where terrestrial infrastructure is unavailable or disrupted. NTN will also support the Internet of Things (IoT), defense applications, and next-generation broadband services.

Here are 2 key take-aways which have been repeated by many speakers :

  1. It is crucial for future NTN connectivity to have the capability to work without GNSS – called “GNSS Free Operation” or “GNSS Denied Operation”. Public Safety players have been very vocal on this topic stating that operating without GNSS will be the most important thing in the future for mission critical communications. The map presenting recent GPS jamming speaks for itself.
  2. Future NTN connectivity needs an asynchronous waveform to unlock NTN capacity in order to be able to support a massive number of connected devices and unprecedent peaks of transmissions – essential for real scalability.

Looking ahead

The ETSI NTN-6G Conference confirmed that addressing these two challenges — GNSS independence and asynchronous waveform adoption — will be decisive for the future of global connectivity.

At TERNWAVES, we are proud to contribute to this ecosystem with Golden Modulation™, our breakthrough technology designed to ensure GNSS-free operation, massive scalability, and resilient connectivity for Non-Terrestrial Networks.