Direct-to-Cell Satellite Network without Satellite Navigation (SN²)#
SIGCOMM 2025 digest Program Wildcard pick Coimbra · 8–11 September 2025
Wei Liu et al. (Tsinghua)
Why: The failure mode is fundamentally an authn/authz-and-location problem in disguise — GNSS as an implicit trust dependency for access control is a framing the identity-minded PM will appreciate.
What: Shows direct-to-cell satellite networks' over-reliance on GNSS for geolocation/timing causes mis-billing, unauthorized service, and denials, and proposes self-navigation from the satellites themselves.
How: A "fate-sharing" approach reusing the direct-to-cell satellites for built-in navigation, trading navigation accuracy for availability; validated with commodity satellite phones on 3GPP NTN stacks.
Where applicable: Direct-to-cell / NTN satellite systems; the trust-dependency lesson generalizes beyond space.