Innovation at the ground segment – is it keeping up?
The satellite industry has long been standing very much on its own and viewed as a niche technology. The future, however, will be built on collaboration and the establishment of new standards that will enable it to integrate smoothly with other technologies.
Helen Weedon, Managing Director, Satcoms Innovation Group
Satellites have been redefined in recent years. Highly capable, highly flexible and configurable, gone are the days of the spacecraft that were built with a particular mission in mind. Today’s satellites can take on multiple use cases. They can offer steerable and split-beams that can be adjusted as per requirements. They are software defined, enabling them to be reconfigured on-orbit. This is coupled with the emergence of multi-orbit constellations in LEO, MEO and HEO featuring hundreds and even thousands of small satellites that offer low latency and highperformance connectivity.
These changes are allowing the satellite industry to rival terrestrial technology. It’s finally moving into the mainstream, having to adapt and transform itself to fit into the advancing world of communications that we live in today. As we move towards a fully networked world, the satellite industry is starting to embrace the telco world, along with its standards, so that it can integrate much more easily into the wider connectivity landscape. However, this is very much a journey of self-discovery for the sector which is having to push itself to innovate and adapt, to form new relationships, and to view itself in a different way.
It starts on the ground
The dramatic transformation on-orbit will not be realized without the ground segment. The ground infrastructure and satellite terminals, modems, and all associated equipment are intrinsic to the success of these new space capabilities. Without the ground segment, the space segment can’t do its job. In the past, what’s happening on the ground has rarely been given the attention it deserves, but that’s changing as the realization dawns that satellite cannot take its place in next gen networks without it.
So, what is the current state of the ground segment and what innovations are in progress to enable the realization of next gen satellite networks?
The cloud
If you were to ask most businesses today whether they use the cloud, I’m sure you’ll hear a resounding ‘yes’. The last few years have seen enormous cloud adoption as many, if not all sectors embrace it to empower their businesses.
The cloud has enabled service providers to scale up massive networks in reduced time with less CAPEX and faster, more cost-effective scale. It also facilitates a distributed, reliable architecture with access to greater security, proven management tools, and streamlined operations. If you’re a remote business
though, you need cloud access everywhere, otherwise it’s out of reach – and that’s where satellite is proving itself indispensable.
The cloud is the baby of the telco industry so, if satellite is to integrate itself in the broader telco market, it must become cloud friendly. To achieve this there will be a move away from physical hardware to software which will enable it to serve new use cases and to improve overall operational efficiency. The ground must embrace virtualization.
Converting hardware into software where it is installed and managed remotely via third-party data centers, will give satellite operators more flexibility over their networks and speed up how quickly they can respond to customer demands. This is no small feat. It’s an incredibly complex migration that will involve every aspect of the satellite ecosystem: teleport, gateways, operators, service providers, and ground system vendors. Ultimately, it will result in reduced costs and complexity and create opportunities to expand markets.
The satellite sector has been slow to adopt an open architecture, but by assuming best practices from the telco and IT worlds, it can adapt to the specific needs of the market and move to availability and adoption much more quickly. Creation of a fully digital ground segment also means that it can also better integrate to enable 5G and the network of networks.
Are we there yet?
Though there is still a long way to go, there’s consensus across the sector that virtualization is necessary, and some vendors have already started to go to market with virtualized products. This transition is now set to gain momentum. It’s been a rapid learning curve for an industry that has previously been slower to adapt to change but that must now move quickly and decisively. The satcom industry can learn from the
Earth Observation (EO) sector that has adopted virtualization for some years now, due to the amount of passes round the earth that the EO satellites make.
Standards
The satellite sector lags behind the telco sector by around a decade and the example of standards epitomises this. Whilst telco embraced standards such as 3GPP and MEF, the satellite sector has always manufactured proprietary equipment. However, it’s time to change and to adopt standards that will enable the functionality of teleport infrastructure to run on private or public cloud platforms. Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) are preparing to accommodate satellite technology - and standards will be a big enabler in making this happen.
To unite the industry and develop the standard, the Digital Intermediate Frequency Interoperability (DIFI) Consortium, was established. This highly collaborative group brings together industry players and has created a standard that enables the digital transformation of space, satellite, and related industries by providing a simple, open, interoperable digital IF/RF standard that replaces the natural interoperability of analogue IF signals and helps prevent vendor lock-in.
DIFI Members have created a standard that is both open and transparent and membership is growing. The aim is to keep the standard simple so that it can be easily adopted and meet a wide range of needs, yet is cost-effective and uncomplicated to implement. It must also develop with the industry as it evolves and support advancements on-orbit.
By leveraging the DIFI standard, the management of the teleport will be simplified. The standardization will result in flexible delivery over IP connectivity thus simplifying maintenance as teleports draw upon one common pool of human resources. The DIFI standard will also allow for the use of COTS hardware which in turn will result in lower costs.
It’s not just the DIFI standard that is being adopted. The satellite industry has a place at the table for the 3GPP, MEF and 5G-NTN standards, all of which are essential for integration. Satellite is having its voice heard.
Flat panel antennas
Flat Panel Antennas (FPA) have been called the key enabler for NewSpace. They offer advantages over traditional parabolic antennas in terms of their conformal form factor; their agility across orbits; and their ability to handle mobile connectivity on land, sea and air. In a nutshell, they are a crucial enabler for next gen satcom networks, and they are already in the market in large numbers, with more being introduced at an astounding pace.
However, there is a problem, and that is the issue of quality. With a traditional parabolic antenna there is a set of data, established by the SOMAP group (Satellite Operator’s Minimum Antenna Performance) that manufacturers must adhere to. The group established a coordinated approach to delivering standards for manufacturers of parabolic antennas to ensure a minimum standard of performance. This
doesn’t exist for manufacturers of FPAs. Instead, they are left guessing at what operators need – and are often falling back on SOMAP requirements developed for completely different antennas. This means that they are flying blind which is resulting in varying levels of performance and an increased risk of harmful RFI (radio frequency interference).
Again, standards are required for the FPA industry so that manufacturers have clear guidance on what is expected from them and can avoid flooding the market with substandard antennas systems that are not focused on quality.
It’s a very complex issue. Flat panel and phased array antenna technologies operate in a wholly different way. Performance changes with frequency, time, and angle. This makes the testing process entirely different and also much more complex than with parabolic antennas. When you consider the way that operators and end users will use these terminals an extra layer of complexity surfaces. Without standardization, different data sets may well be requested by each operator, and carrying out new measurements for each customer can be an incredibly time-consuming and costly process. Manufacturers obviously want to provide their customers with FPAs that meet their requirements in terms of performance and bandwidth capacity, yet without standardized testing and data procedures, this is difficult for the manufacturer to provide.
Finding common ground
Collaboration across the satellite industry is vital to develop these standardized data and testing protocols. By working together, stakeholders can establish best practices that improve reliability, reduce the risk of errors and interference, and enhance overall system performance. The long-term success of the satellite industry depends on these efforts because without standardization, we’ll likely see more performance discrepancies which could impact QoS, increase the risk of interference, and erode customer confidence, which could be detrimental to the future of satcom. Establishing standardized protocols will enhance the overall reliability and efficiency of satellite networks, and ultimately benefit the entire industry.
The Satcom Innovation Group (SIG) and GSOA have pushed the challenge of FPAs to the top of the agenda as we recognize the urgency with which this needs to be addressed. Taking action, both groups have initiated discussions on how this can be resolved and how a path forward can be established.
Yes, stakeholders do have different priorities, but there needs to be a coming together to find common ground and to agree upon the data that manufacturers need to provide to operators. If we don’t follow the example that SOMAP set, we risk both the integrity of our industry and the huge promise that FPAs bring to future networks.
Collaboration
There’s a thread running through all of these developments and that is one of collaboration. If, as an industry, we are to achieve our goals of virtualization and standardization, we must take a unified approach. We must put an end to the siloes and start working as a team to affect success, building on shared experiences and knowledge.
As an organization, SIG works tirelessly to find common ground on which the industry can build upon. We create a forum from which we can drive change, allowing diverse opinions to be shared and ideas to be formulated.
Is innovation at the ground segment keeping up? This is a journey that is going to take time but today everything is heading in the right direction. As a sector, we know where we need to go, and through cooperation that end goal will be more easily achieved.
Join us at SIG and make change happen.
