Cooperative Transmission in Integrated Terrestrial-Satellite Networks

Satellite networks are able to provide seamless services for ground users with wide coverage, which is intrinsically suitable for providing broadcasting or multicasting services. While terrestrial networks have experienced rapid development in recent years, in next generation communications, the architecture of integrated terrestrial-satellite networks is promising to enable users to seamlessly access all types of services. In this article, we investigate the problem of cooperative transmission in integrated terrestrial-satellite networks, where two cases of unicast transmission and multicast transmission are discussed separately. Overall, this article aims to provide a comprehensive discussion and also propose a general framework of cooperative transmission in future terrestrial-satellite networks.