Software, Interoperability and Facing Disruption
Is it too much to say that no industry has undergone so much disruption in so short a time and at so many levels simultaneously as what the space industry is experiencing today? Yes, there have been technologies like the Internet that have driven broader transformation across many vertical industries and communities, but has an established market undergone so much so fast from so many angles?
What the space sector, in particular the satellite industry, is going through now is upending everything, top to bottom, and not from just one driver: it’s new economics, new technologies, new business models, new use cases, new competitors, new urgencies from global governments, new interest from adjacent sectors like MNOs and cloud providers and much more. From satellite technology advancements in the highest through the lowest orbits to operations on the ground, no part of the industry is escaping transformational change.
Amid all of that is one inescapable conclusion: the satellite industry must learn how to interoperate smoothly with the rest of the global communications sector. That’s been said repeatedly many times over the decades, but has never been more important or more imminent, if for no other reason than space is growing more and more essential in everyone’s daily lives.
Satellite has long had a role in providing critical data services. As far back as some 20 years ago a Panamsat satellite had a problem that took it off the air for couple of hours. It became front page news because the pager systems served by that satellite went dark for most of the hospitals and other critical services in the city of Los Angeles.
Remember pagers? Now imagine losing cell phones and google maps.
Until very recently, satellite has mainly been a provider of broadcast services. Streaming services like Netflix have changed that dramatically, threatening the industry’s primary revenue stream.
Satellite is transitioning from a boutique technology to becoming an integrated part of the global communications fabric. The challenge is . . . well one of the challenges is . . . that unlike terrestrial networks that long ago learned to adapt analog RF to digital IP, satellite networks have lagged. Moving to digital ground systems, with virtualized signal routing and signal processing along with software-defined networking architectures will enable the growth, scale, cost efficiencies and seamless integration with terrestrial networks needed for the satellite industry to meet the challenges of this transition.
That’s the mission of the Digital IF Interoperability Consortium (DIFI). DIFI is a group of leading businesses, government agencies and academia aiming to create and advance standards for ground systems that will allow satellite to play its part seamlessly in an internetworked world.
The time is right. The introduction of 5G NTN sets the stage. Conversations like direct-to-cell service and in-flight connectivity set the market.
The first step in transitioning to digital ground is digitalization of the RF signals to allow routing and processing via virtualized, software-defined networks. When signals are analog you have natural interoperability between systems; once digital, however, interoperability suffers because those signals can be turned into IP packets in a thousand different ways. Without standards, we perpetuate the same proprietary systems that lock in vendors, drive up prices, stifle innovation and maintain the stovepipes that separate us from integrating with other networks.
DIFI has created an easily implemented digital IF standard that has already been accepted by a large part of the industry. This will enable both vendors and operators to safely invest in the digital ground products and solutions they build and buy, as well as the ability to mix best-of-breed options. DIFI is also working in related ways to enhance satellite’s ability to grow and compete through interoperability, such as a recently launched effort to modernize standards for electrically steerable antennas (ESA) that will advance their capabilities to support mobility, IoT and other use cases.
These efforts will enable the satellite industry to be ready to handle the challenges, growth and scale that a disrupted future will bring.
Google Maps photo by Tamas Tuzes-Katai on Unsplash