The integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites as aerial nodes in non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) presents both opportunities and challenges for on-demand 6G interconnectivity. This paper presents a new Composite Cost Metric (CCM) which improves energy-efficient routing performance in combined UAV-satellite constellations. We consider incorporating cumulative Free Space Path Loss (FSPL) and residual energy into the route selection process for both proactive and reactive protocols, our approach refines the routing decisions of classical protocols. The proposed CCM-driven modifications and protocol-specific integration typologies can improve overall route stability, reduce energy consumption per delivered packet, and optimize network reliability by dynamically selecting relays with lower attenuation and higher energy availability. We develop an NS-3-based simulation framework that integrates realistic satellite orbital mechanics, UAV mobility models, and a hybrid energy model that includes solar energy harvesting for satellites. Simulation results demonstrate that our enhancements can indeed outperform baseline implementations in packet delivery ratio, energy efficiency, and end-to-end delay which makes them viable for next-generation NTN-supported 6G networks, at the expense of some additional control overhead. With this set of developments we aim to pave the way for global-optimum and energy-aware emergency and disaster relief communications.

Abstract: Security, Trust and Reliability are crucial issues in mobile 5G networks from both hardware and software perspectives. These issues are of significant importance when considering implementations over distributed environments, i.e., corporate Cloud environment over massively virtualized infrastructures as envisioned in the 5G service provision paradigm. The SANCUS1 solution intends providing a modular framework integrating different engines in order to enable next‐generation 5G system networks to perform automated and intelligent analysis of their firmware images at massive scale, as well as the validation of applications and services. SANCUS also proposes a proactive risk assessment of network applications and services by means of maximising the overall system resilience in terms of security, privacy and reliability. This paper presents an overview of the SANCUS architecture in its current release as well as the pilots use cases that will be demonstrated at the end of the project and used for validating the concepts.