Air Access Network in 6G Technology: Progress and Prospect

The air access network (AAN) has the characteristics of strong invulnerability, wide coverage and high line-of-sight propagation probability. Combined with the terrestrial network, it can effectively alleviate the traffic load pressure, provide all-time connection and services, and effectively contribute to the realization of the vision of "intelligence of everything" of the sixth generation mobile networks (6G). Based on the analysis of satellite communication and high altitude platform station (HAPS) technology research progress in AAN, the application of satellite communication in data access and the role of HAPS in the integrated network architecture was studied, and further explores the effect of satellite and HAPS in future networks as well as the potential methods for optimization were explored. Finally, the data collision problem of satellite access and the cache problem of HAPS were discussed and analyzed, and the future development direction of satellite communication and HAPS technology was prospected from the above problems.