# Toward Integrated Satellite Operations and Network Management: A Review and Novel Framework
## 1 Introduction  
The space economy has evolved significantly over the past decades. Exploiting the space segment used to be mainly feasible for governmental agencies with public investment, but technological breakthroughs have led to the New Space era [1]. This disruptive trend is characterized by increased participation from both the private and public sectors, with commercial ventures, government projects, and innovative startups driving advancements in satellite technology, and interplanetary exploration. The New Spaceera has fundamentally transformed the satellite industry, with SpaceX already deploying over 5000 Starlink satellites and Amazon's Kuiper constellation planning 3236 satellites, demonstrating unprecedented commercial investment and deployment capabilities [2]. OneWeb, Telesat, and GW (a Chinese state-owned company) are similarly developing megaconstellations that will collectively deploy tens of thousands of satellites in LEO [3]. This transformation is challenging to fully characterize, but the following factors have played key roles [4]: (1) the adoption of COTS and CubeSat platforms, (2) the miniaturization of satellite hardware, (3) the transformation of traditionally hardware-centric systems into software-defined systems, and (4) the reduction in the cost of the space launchers. This New Space economy has boosted private investment growth for space missions. Although this affects a wide range of technological and scientific areas, this paper focuses on satellite telecommunications services, which stand out alongside EO missions [5]. Satellite constellations for telecommunications services are not new to the industry. LEO satellite constellations were attempted in the early 20 th century, including Iridium, Gobalstar, O3b and Teledesic. Nowadays, emerging constellations like Starlink, OneWeb, Telesat, and Kuiper offer internet access services over satellite [6]. A survey of 251 New Space commercial satellite constellations is presented in [7], where different classifications based on relevant criteria are presented. Table 1 aggregates the statistical data from this survey under three classifications that are especially relevant for this research: (1) mission application or field, (2) satellite form factor, and (3) satellite orbit. The percentages shown represent the proportion of constellations in each category as reported in the original survey. These results indicate that the most upcoming constellations will soon be LEO smallsat constellations. Traditionally, these constellations operated as standalone systems without a common standard, but a shift is anticipated for future constellations. The 6G recommendation by ITU envisions seamless interworking between these constellations and terrestrial networks to achieve global connectivity, especially in rural and remote areas without terrestrial network coverage [8]. The technical realization of this seamless interworking involves several key enablers: dynamic spectrum sharing between satellite and terrestrial networks using cognitive radio techniques and RSMA (rate-splitting multiple access) [9], unified radio access network (RAN) architectures supporting both terrestrial and satellite air interfaces with AI-native design principles, and AI-driven network orchestration for automated handovers and adaptive resource allocation across heterogeneous network segments [10]. Recent advances in open RAN technologies further facilitate this convergence by enabling disaggregated and programmable network functions that can dynamically adapt to satellite and terrestrial requirements.