ETHER – sElf-evolving terrestrial/non-Terrestrial Hybrid nEtwoRks

以太旨在为地面-非地面综合网络提供一种整体方案，目标是网络覆盖率达到100%，服务连续性达到99.99999，可靠性达到99.99999%，与目前仅部署地面网络相比，能效提高3倍，总拥有成本降低95%。为了实现这些目标，ETHER为统一无线接入网络(RAN)和地面、航空和空间领域的高能效、支持人工智能的资源管理开发解决方案，同时制定业务计划，推动该地区的未来投资。为此，ETHER在独特的3D多层架构方案下引入并组合了一系列关键技术，该方案集合了：i)用于集成网络中的直接手持接入的UE天线设计和实现，ii)稳健的统一波形，iii)能量高效的无缝水平和垂直切换策略，iv)零接触管理和网络协调器，以自适应快速变化的交通状况，而无需人为干预，v)灵活的有效负载系统，以实现空中和空间层的可编程性，vi)联合通信、计算和存储资源分配解决方案，目标是利用高效和新颖的预测分析方案进行端到端网络性能优化，以及vii)与边缘计算和缓存相结合的高能效语义感知信息处理技术，以减少分布式3D计算和存储连续体中的延迟。

ETHER aims to provide a holistic approach for integrated terrestrial-non-terrestrial networks targeting at 100% network coverage, 99.99999% service continuity and 99.99999% reliability, with 3 times higher energy efficiency and 95% Total Cost of Ownership reduction compared to current terrestrial only deployments. To achieve these goals, ETHER develops solutions for a Unified Radio Access Network (RAN) and for the energy-efficient, AI-enabled resource management across the terrestrial, aerial and space domains, while creating the business plans driving future investments in the area. To that end, ETHER introduces and combines a series of key technologies under a unique 3D multi-layered architectural proposition that brings together: i) a UE antenna design and implementation for direct handheld access in the integrated network, ii) a robust unified waveform, iii) energy-efficient seamless horizontal and vertical handover policies, iv) a zero-touch management and network orchestrator to self-adapt to rapidly evolving traffic conditions without human intervention, v) a flexible payload system to enable programmability in the aerial and space layers, vi) joint communication, compute and storage resource allocation solutions targeting at End-to-End network performance optimization leveraging efficient and novel predictive analytics schemes, and vii) energy-efficient semantics-aware information handling techniques combined with edge computing and caching for reduced latency across the distributed 3D compute and storage continuum.