6G Satellite Direct-to-Cell Connectivity: "To distribute, or not to distribute, that is the question"

Direct-to-cell connectivity between satellites and common terrestrial handheld devices represents an essential feature of 6G. The industry is considering different type of constellations but using classical single satellite solutions based on phased array antennas. This article proposes to decompose a classical single satellite into a swarm of multiple small platforms (e.g. CubeSats) each equipped with one or a small number of radiating elements. The platforms are spaced far apart to create a large virtual aperture. The use of small satellites promises cost reduction for production and launch, while the distributed nature of the system introduces interesting features, such as scalability and fault tolerance. This perspective article provides insights into the opportunities and a discussion of the research challenges for the feasibility of the proposed approach.