Koreasat6A, photo by Thales

Keysight Technologies and KT SAT completed what they called “the industry’s first successful NR-NTN multi-orbit handover between a commercial GEO satellite and an emulated LEO link” based on a lab trial using the KOREASAT-6A satellite.

The companies said the demonstration took place in a controlled lab environment at KT SAT’s Kumsan Satellite Network Operation Center in Korea and was performed over a live Ku‑band GEO connection. The test puts the collaborators closer to testing the newly standardized 3GPP Rel‑19 Ku‑band NTN spectrum.

The demonstration utilized Keysight’s Network Emulator Solutions and UeSIM RAN Testing Toolset to emulate base stations and user equipment, establishing a two-way link through KOREASAT-6A. The link was able to maintain service continuity during a handover from GEO to an emulated LEO connection.

“By incorporating Ku‑band operation into this multi-orbit mobility scenario, Keysight and KT SAT have validated NTN behaviors in a frequency range now central to emerging global standards and operator deployment strategies,” Keysight and KT SAT said in the announcement. “As the industry moves toward 6G, integrating satellite and terrestrial networks is essential to deliver continuous coverage and resilient service in remote or disaster-affected areas. Satellite links, however, introduce longer delays, Doppler effects, and dynamic link conditions that complicate mobility and handover across space and ground domains.”

KT SAT and Keysight hope that the multi-orbit demonstration shows that operators can evolve from point-to-point satellite links to continuous multi-orbit mobility, giving them earlier visibility into real‑world propagation, timing, and interoperability behavior.

“As the only satellite communications service provider in Korea, KT SAT is progressively validating the applicability of NTN gNB and UE using our five operational GEO satellites,” said KT SAT CEO Seo Young-soo. “Building on the results of this trial, we will actively explore strengthening the competitiveness of our next-generation GEO satellite for the global market and delivering integrated multi-orbit communication services based on NTN systems, including traffic handover across our own GEO and future LEO/MEO constellations.”