Effective integration of terrestrial and non-terrestrial segments is one of the key research avenues in the design of current and future wireless communication networks. To this aim, modern communication-satellite constellations intend to attain sufficiently high throughput in terms of bit rate per unit area on the ground by rather aggressive patterns of spatial frequency reuse. This goal calls for on-board narrow-beam antennas, whose size turns out to be in many cases incompatible with the size/mass and accommodation constraints of the hosting satellite. This paper investigates the attainable performance of large distributed arrays of antennas implemented as the ensemble of a few to many simpler sub-antennas of smaller sizes, carried by one (small) satellite each. The sub-antennas can in their turn be implemented like (regular) 2D arrays of simple radiating elements, realizing an overall (distributed) antenna architecture that we call "Formation of Arrays" (FoA). The satellites that implement this radiating architecture need to be relatively close to each other and constitute a formation of flying objects, to be coordinated and controlled as a whole. In this paper, we develop a theoretical analysis of an FoA antenna, and we show how to take advantage of this new technology to improve network throughput in a multi-beam S-band mobile communication network with low-earth or geostationary orbiting satellites directly providing 5G-like communication services to hand-held user terminals.

翻译：为实现这一目标,现代通信卫星星座打算通过相当积极的空间频率再利用模式,在地面单位面积的比特率方面达到足够高的比特率。这个目标要求在板上安装窄波天线,其大小在许多情况下与主机卫星的大小/质量和住宿限制不相容。本文调查作为几到许多较小规模的较简单的次亚离子天线合用而实施的大型分布式天线阵列的可实现的性能,每个小(小型)卫星都携带这些天线。子天线可以按(常规)2D系列的简单辐射元素再利用,实现我们称之为“阵列的配置”(FoA)的总体(分布式)天线结构。实施这种辐射结构的卫星需要相对接近于其他天线阵列,构成飞行物体的构成,需要协调和控制。在本文中,我们通过低端网络直接展示了5个用户网络的理论分析,我们如何通过低端网络直接展示了5个用户网络。</s>