Guest editorial IJSCN special issue on 3GPP NTN standards for future satellite communications.

In March 2017, at RAN#75 meeting in Dubrovnik, for the first time in 3GPP, satellite industries and stakeholders have got a unique opportunity to be involved in the standardization process of a new standard integrating Terrestrial and non-Terrestrial networks. Legacy Satcom systems are characterized by the reliance on industry driven technical specifications leading to proprietary architecture, protocol stack and radio access levels up to the point where basic satellite access network interoperability between different vendors is not granted. The sixth paper addresses the Radio Frequency (RF) aspects of NR NTN and provides the requirements on Satellite Access Node and User Equipment for NTN in 5G New Radio as specified in 3GPP Release-17. [Extracted from the article]