NTN Simulation Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing has already peaked. 2023 recorded 12 families, the high point of the whole 2015-2026 window, with the trend flat-to-declining since the 2022 midpoint of just 2.
- China dominates the filing venue. 16 of the tracked records were filed at the China receiving office, more than double the United States at 7, concentrating prosecution risk and prior art in Chinese-language filings.
- H04B carries the field almost alone. 32 of 39 records sit in H04B (general transmission), against 8 in H04W and 5 in H04L — most of the claim activity is happening in one subclass.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families at the intersection of non-terrestrial network (NTN) operation and the specific act of simulating or modeling it — satellite channel modeling, link budget simulation and constellation simulation — rather than NTN hardware or protocol claims generally. The search string requires both the network context and a modeling term to appear together in title, abstract or claims, so the corpus is deliberately narrow: 39 published families between 2015 and the 2026-07-31 cut-off.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025-2026 count understates real filing activity; treat the apparent 2023 peak and the subsequent drop with that lag in mind rather than as a confirmed collapse in interest.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 39 families: when they were filed, and which IPC subclass carries the claim language.
A short, front-loaded filing history
The series opens at 1 family in 2017, builds unevenly through the early 2020s, peaks at 12 in 2023, and falls off toward 2026 — partly real, partly the publication lag masking recent filings not yet public.
Concentration in H04B
32 of 39 records classify under H04B (general transmission), versus 8 in H04W (wireless network architecture), 5 in H04L (digital transmission protocols) and 4 in G06F (data processing) — claim activity is heavily weighted toward physical-layer transmission modeling rather than network-layer or software tooling claims.
Shares are the percentage of the 39 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Non-Terrestrial Network Simulation and Modeling with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about non-terrestrial network simulation and modeling and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative recent filing
Satellite communication method and apparatus (US20250253934A1)
A network device sends a broadcast message indicating a number x of repetitions; a terminal device sends a feedback message for a downlink message in a random access procedure, where the number of repetitions y for that feedback is determined based on x.Filed by Huawei Technologies, published 2025-08-07 — illustrates how current filings frame repetition-count signaling for random access rather than channel modeling per se.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20160278063A1 | Satellite beam power backoff | 29 |
| 2 | CN103188011A | 一种综合气象因素的Ka波段卫星信道建模方法 | 25 |
| 3 | CN106599398A | 天地一体化集成管理系统的仿真方法及装置 | 16 |
| 4 | CN103401601A | 一种静止气象卫星信道建模方法 | 12 |
| 5 | CN113644942A | 一种基于几何的3D MIMO LEO卫星空天地信道建模方法 | 8 |
| 6 | US9538538B2 | Satellite beam power backoff | 8 |
| 7 | CN115801094A | 双球心角体3D几何结构的低轨卫星信道建模方法及装置 | 5 |
| 8 | WO2025129732A1 | 一种面向低轨卫星通信的射线追踪信道建模方法 | 4 |
| 9 | US20250253934A1 | Satellite communication method and apparatus | 3 |
| 10 | CN117439659A | 一种面向低轨卫星通信的射线追踪信道建模方法 | 2 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations within this searched set — read them as a signal of influence on the field's vocabulary, not as a ranking of current relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three observations follow directly from the filing and citation data, without extrapolating beyond it.
The peak is recent but the trajectory is uneven
A single peak year of 12 filings sitting well above a midpoint of 2 suggests a burst of activity around 2023 rather than steady compounding growth — worth checking against publication lag before assuming interest has cooled.
Prosecution risk concentrates in China
With 16 of the tracked filings entering through the China receiving office against 7 in the US, 6 via PCT and 5 at the EPO, freedom-to-operate searches that skip Chinese-language literature will miss the largest single bloc of prior art.
Claims cluster on the physical layer
Four out of five records classify under H04B, general transmission, leaving H04W network-architecture claims and G06F data-processing claims comparatively thin — a narrower band of the field is doing most of the claiming.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to non-terrestrial network simulation and modeling, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is open
Assignee activity in this corpus is a mix of individual inventors with tight co-filing pairs and a small set of corporate and academic filers, with momentum flat across the board in the most recent tracked year.
Huawei's filing has stalled year over year
Huawei Technologies shows 0 filings in the latest tracked year against a -100% YoY change, consistent with the broader flattening across the corpus rather than a company-specific pullback.
University filers are present but not accelerating
Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology appears among the tracked assignees with no filings in the latest year, indicating academic interest in channel-modeling methods without a current filing push.
A tight three-inventor cluster drives its own filings
Timpe Miles, Hobbs Alexander and Deguillaume Frederic co-file with each other at a link strength of 4 across all three pairwise combinations, suggesting a single research team responsible for a meaningful slice of the individually-attributed filings.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Qualcomm Incorporated | 0 | — |
| Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology | 0 | — |
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| TIMPE MILES | 0 | — |
| HUGHES NETWORK SYST | 0 | — |
| HOBBS ALEXANDER | 0 | — |
| DEGUILLAUME FREDERIC | 0 | — |
| Yexing Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this
The filing and classification data point to specific next steps rather than a single conclusion.
Check the publication-lag window
Before concluding that filing has cooled, pull 2024-2026 applications directly from national offices, since this corpus's most recent years are understated by an 18-month publication lag.
Explore recent filings in EurekaSearch Chinese-language prior art directly
With 16 of 39 records filed in China, a freedom-to-operate review limited to English-language databases will miss the largest single filing bloc in this field.
Run a full-text China search in EurekaMap the H04W and G06F edges
The comparatively thin filing counts in network-architecture and data-processing classifications may reflect genuine white space rather than lack of relevance.
Compare IPC subclasses in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
In this dataset, a record has to combine NTN or satellite-communication network terms with a modeling or simulation term — satellite channel modeling, link budget simulation or constellation simulation — appearing together in the title, abstract or claims. This excludes general NTN hardware or protocol patents that do not touch modeling, and it excludes generic simulation tools that are not tied to a satellite or non-terrestrial network context. The result is a narrow, purpose-built corpus of 39 patent families rather than the whole NTN patent space.
Patent applications typically publish about 18 months after they are filed, so any recent year in a filing trend is understated simply because the newest filings have not yet become public. The peak of 12 families in 2023 followed by a lower count is therefore not necessarily a real decline in filing interest; it may partly reflect applications still working through the publication pipeline. A clearer read on 2024-2026 activity requires checking application-stage filings directly rather than relying on published counts alone.
China is the largest single receiving office in this corpus at 16 filings, more than double the United States at 7 and well ahead of PCT applications at 6 and the EPO at 5. Any clearance search that limits itself to English-language US or European databases will miss the largest bloc of relevant prior art. A thorough review should include Chinese-language full-text search alongside the usual US, EPO and WIPO sources.
Both are plausible readings. H04B, general transmission, holds 32 of the 39 tracked records, which does indicate dense claim activity around physical-layer transmission and channel characteristics for satellite links. But high density in one IPC subclass does not by itself mean the underlying technology is mature or settled — it means that particular claim space is occupied, while adjacent classifications like H04W and G06F carry far fewer filings and may still be open.
The corpus includes a mix of corporate assignees such as Huawei Technologies and Qualcomm, an academic filer in Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, and a tightly linked group of individual co-inventors — Timpe Miles, Hobbs Alexander and Deguillaume Frederic — who co-file together with a link strength of 4 across all three pairwise combinations. Momentum across all of these named filers is flat in the most recent tracked year, consistent with the broader plateau visible in the overall filing trend.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.