2023 has been full of important developments, with technological advancements and innovation driving our industry’s transformation at a pace not seen before in satcom.
We’ve seen significant changes as providers respond to constant demands for bandwidth, greater speeds, and more network flexibility.
The continued influx of capacity is changing on-orbit economics with falling prices driving the emergence of new use cases. Software-defined satellites are bringing new and dynamic capabilities that are highly flexible and reconfigure themselves on demand.
Next-generation ground networks must reflect the space segment in terms of high flexibility with capabilities that allow operators to rapidly change where capacity is required, enabling seamless integration, and roaming across networks. And ground segment providers must become software-defined, cloud-based and virtualized to unlock the potential of new space.
As a result, the industry’s focus has turned to exploring how to approach virtualization, standardization and interoperability, and the unification of technologies to make one cohesive connectivity landscape.
ST Engineering iDirect’s Transformation
Parallel to these changes in the wider industry, it has also been a significant year for us at ST Engineering iDirect, as we usher in an innovative era of growth under the new leadership of our CEO, Don Claussen. Today, we embrace an even more ambitious focus: to establish the new norm where satellite-based networks seamlessly integrate multi-orbit solutions with terrestrial-based wireless communications.
Realizing this vision requires an unwavering commitment to three core operating principles: standards-based innovation, industry-wide collaboration to ensure interoperability, and an operator focused mindset to ensure their success.
Standardization holds the key to major advances in satcom but it can be a topic few want to bring up. With many in the industry used to working in silos and a bespoke network mindset, we need to actively drive and implement standardization, with the telecom sector serving as a compelling example of embracing this direction.
At ST Engineering iDirect, we’ve been busy steering our next-generation technology towards standardization and look forward to showcasing its viability through practical execution over the next year.
Partnerships and Milestones
Without collaboration, the industry will not be able to achieve its goal of interoperability and multi-orbit, seamless connectivity. We’ve worked with many partners this year, maximizing our collective knowledge
We continued our work as part of the DIFI Consortium that has developed the DIFI v1.1 standard, supporting the digitization of the interface between modem and RF components.
We collaborated with Microsoft Azure, showcasing the demodulation and modulation capability of an iDirect-virtualized high-speed SCPC modem running as containerized software on a COTS server located on Azure.
Next, we plan to migrate our network processing functions to the cloud. We want to prove that satellite network architectures can be built with commercial off-the-shelf components that leverage cloud computing to its fullest potential.
We formed a strategic partnership with Airbus to enable tighter space-to-ground integration, while we also took the lead on the European Protected Waveform project, where consortium members will develop and productize the waveform for use by European nations. The project will see the collaboration of EU Member States to establish agile, secure, economical, and interoperable satellite communications suitable for all European nations and joint EU operations.
What’s next for 2024
Those who have, like us, focused on adapting to operators’ needs this year, showing proof of concepts, will enter 2024 ready to adjust to any changes in the market.
In 2024, we can expect more discussion around the adoption of standards, which must happen if we are to succeed with our seamless multi-orbit future. We’ll see more collaboration and build upon relationships both inside and outside the industry to achieve this.
The lessons we learn from existing and future proof-of-concepts will guide our next-generation technologies and enable a future-proof platform for our customers. We’ll continue to collaborate with others in the industry to deliver a stronger ecosystem to meet end-user requirements over the coming years. The excitement and momentum in 2023 are only the start of great things to come.
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Julie Bettinger is the Chief Marketing Office of ST Engineering iDirect. She can be reached at jbettinger@idrect.net
