# A Survey on Non-Geostationary Satellite Systems: The Communication Perspective

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.05312 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.05312/

## Key facts

- Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 12 Jul 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [Leveraging Large Language Models for Integrated Satellite-Aerial-Terrestrial Networks: Recent Advances and Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.04581/) (2024)
- [Onboard Satellite Image Classification for Earth Observation: A Comparative Study of ViT Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.03901/) (2024)
- [On-Air Deep Learning Integrated Semantic Inference Models for Enhanced Earth Observation Satellite Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.15246/) (2024)
- [Semantic Knowledge Distillation for Onboard Satellite Earth Observation Image Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.00209/) (2024)
- [AI-Native Open RAN for Non-Terrestrial Networks: An Overview](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.11935/) (2025)
- [Fed-KAN: Federated Learning with Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks for Traffic Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.00154/) (2025)
- [SmartUT: Receive Beamforming for Spectral Coexistence of NGSO Satellite Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.07714/) (2025)
- [OrbitChain: Orchestrating In-orbit Real-time Analytics of Earth Observation Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.13374/) (2025)
- [Asynchronous Risk-Aware Multi-Agent Packet Routing for Ultra-Dense LEO Satellite Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.27506/) (2025)
- [OptiVote: Non-Coherent FSO Over-the-Air Majority Vote for Communication-Efficient Distributed Federated Learning in Space Data Centers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.24334/) (2025)
- [Adversarial Water-Filling: Theory, Algorithms, and a Domain-Specific Wireless Foundation Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.26163/) (2026)
- [STR-Agent: An LLM-Driven Agent for QoS-Aware Routing in LEO Satellite Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.20347/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The next phase of satellite technology is being characterized by a new evolution in non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellites, which conveys exciting new communication capabilities to provide non-terrestrial connectivity solutions and to support a wide range of digital technologies from various industries. NGSO communication systems are known for a number of key features such as lower propagation delay, smaller size, and lower signal losses in comparison to the conventional geostationary orbit (GSO) satellites, which can potentially enable latency-critical applications to be provided through satellites. NGSO promises a substantial boost in communication speed and energy efficiency, and thus, tackling the main inhibiting factors of commercializing GSO satellites for broader utilization. The promised improvements of NGSO systems have motivated this paper to provide a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art NGSO research focusing on the communication prospects, including physical layer and radio access technologies along with the networking aspects and the overall system features and architectures. Beyond this, there are still many NGSO deployment challenges to be addressed to ensure seamless integration not only with GSO systems but also with terrestrial networks. These unprecedented challenges are also discussed in this paper, including coexistence with GSO systems in terms of spectrum access and regulatory issues, satellite constellation and architecture designs, resource management problems, and user equipment requirements. Finally, we outline a set of innovative research directions and new opportunities for future NGSO research.