EU RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES ON 3RD-GENERATION MOBILE SATELLITE SYSTEMS (S-UMTS)

This article summarizes the EU's activities in the ACTS program on mob ile satellite communication, which are directed to the satellite compo nent of UMTS. In this article the projects INSURED, NEWTEST, SECOMS, S INUS, and TOMAS are briefly introduced, and their R&D work on the serv ices implemented in the different test platforms, the network integrat ion scenario into the UMTS network, the studies performed for the air interface, the mobile terminals implemented, and the demonstrated appl ications are summarized. Furthermore, a new approach using neural netw orks for adaptive channel equalization and the concept for an EHF/Ka-B and system are introduced.