Advanced Interference Management Leveraging Staggered Access and Single-Side Precoding in Integrated Satellite-Terrestrial Networks

Integrated satellite-terrestrial networks (ISTNs) are pivotal for achieving seamless global connectivity and supporting diverse information services. However, the network performence is hindered by the tripartite challenge of massive terminal access, limited spectrum resources, and intricate cross-layer interference. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a holistic framework for diverse information services transmission and interference management in future ISTNs. First, we leverage rate-splitting multiple access to construct a unified multi-orbit transmission architecture that enables the efficient coexistence of broadcast, multicast, and unicast services across GEO, MEO, and LEO satellites. Second, we introduce a staggered satellite-terrestrial access (SSTA) strategy based on dynamic spectrum sharing. Unlike conventional passive interference suppression approaches, SSTA proactively reshapes the cross-network interference topology by strategically shifting the interference management burden from resource-constrained terminals and satellites to terrestrial BSs with stronger signal-processing capabilities. Based on the reshaped interference topology, we further adopt a single-side hybrid precoding mechanism to suppress the remaining dominant satellite-to-BS interference through BS-side interference mitigation, without increasing the computational burden of satellites. Case studies demonstrate that the proposed framework effectively improves quality of service and spectral efficiency, providing a promising paradigm for diverse services transmission and interference management in ISTNs.