The Road to
Interoperability

One-to-Many-to-Even More, Chasing an ESA Standard

4/22/2025

DIFI’s recently formed Electronically Steerable Antennas (ESA) Working Group is just getting started, but members are already making great progress on Stage One of their effort, accounting for the variety of use cases and network environments that need to be covered. It’s a complex problem; you could say a one-to-many problem.

Across consumer services, enterprise apps and defense readiness, the applications for ESAs are compelling, including some of today’s most-discussed needs such as mobility, multi-orbit and multi-mission support.

That “multi” nature is the biggest complicating factor, though not the only one.

ESAs represent a tremendous leap forward in dynamic functionality over traditional parabolics, which are designed to perform one function in static environments. That’s why the first step to expanding the existing Monitor and Control (M&C) standards to support ESAs is to determine how many unique uses in how many unique environments are needed to support how many types of users.

For example, the simplest type of use case would be enabling the traditional kind of connectivity used with parabolic antennas; that is, one modem endpoint to one antenna endpoint. Even here, a well-defined use case in the existing standards for parabolics, there are some unique aspects to ESAs that must be considered to get the full value of the ESA’s capabilities.

From there, use cases fall into at least five more “types,” starting with many modem endpoints to one antenna endpoint. This is the beginning solution for the much sought-after multi-orbit scenario. But it’s not the most advanced multi orbit scenario since it would not allow simultaneous multi-orbit connectivity. Doing that requires a different model: many dynamic modem endpoints connected to many dynamic antenna endpoints. In addition to simultaneous GEO/MEO/LEO connectivity, that scenario provides the resiliency expected for military operations.

Start adding mobility support into the equation and new factors arise. For example, what happens when your car enters a tunnel? Aero and maritime mobility bring similar unique factors.

A lot of very smart people are working on these issues for their own products and solutions; however, to achieve the kind of service we have come to rely upon from our smart phones—not to mention their ubiquity—will require industry standards implemented across antennas, modems and even M&C systems. The ESA Working Group includes many of those smart people from organizations across the supply chain to solve this problem at scale, from antenna makers to satellite operators to government end users. To join the effort, visit https://dificonsortium.org/join-now/

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It’s Official, Verified DIFI Compliance

3/25/2025

We were extremely excited to announce last week the two very first ground system products to be recognized as DIFI standard compliant.

This is a major milestone for DIFI that will bring confidence to ground system operators that they can rely upon a given product from a given vendor to meet or exceed functional interoperability expectations matching the standard.

Sometimes standards efforts get undermined because vendors will meet the heart of a standard but make adjustments to the “standard standard” for proprietary benefit but compromising interoperability. To a degree that happened in our own industry with VITA 49 and DVB-S2X over the years. One of our first tasks in moving forward with the DIFI standard was to anchor around a single, stable, accepted form of VITA 49 to build upon.

The first two compliant products, one from Keysight and one from Kratos, went through a manual version of the first type for our projected common process that will stipulate to “types” of compliance. The first type—silver—is based on self-testing, the second phase—gold—will involve third party validation. We are still defining and enabling the gold process, addressing elements such as approved certifiers, cost structures, etc.

Because the first two products were our “test case” milestone, we used a manual process with members of the DIFI Compliance Working Group validating the self-testing results. We’ll use the same manual model for the next six products that are already in the queue for verification. Ultimately, vendors will be able to choose between the silver and gold types that best meet their customers’ requirements.

I want to give a shout out to the members of the DIFI Certification Working Group, including group chairman Kieth King of Gilat Wavestream, for the hard work and careful thought they have put into developing the process, the important milestone they’ve reached and the continuing effort to evolve processes that advance market confidence and meet market needs.

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Is AI Another Bridge Between Space and Terrestrial Networks?

2/25/2025

NVIDIA released its third annual State of AI in Telecommunications Report, reporting that 97% of respondents are “assessing or adopting AI with the goals of enhancing customer experiences and employee productivity, improving network operations, reducing costs, and opening new business opportunities.” Half of respondents said that they have already implemented their first generative AI use case.

There’s no reference for the satellite portion of the telecom industry, but even if implementation in our corner of the market lags, many see the potential benefits and many satellite, mobile and terrestrial network operators are exploring options for managing network operations. Unfortunately, the state of our legacy hardware ground systems may slow us down even more. It is simply much harder to implement robust and dynamic optimization and automation for an analog system. There are limits to what you can do when it comes to collecting and fusing data for the AI algorithms to use.

In contrast, virtualizing ground infrastructure with a digital IF architecture at or close to the antenna provides easy access to any data required to enable optimization or automation. Data from every stage of routing and processing is accessible making it far easier to collect, train and deploy AI and ML models.

For example, suppose an operator wanted to optimize network performance and minimize teleport power requirements by automatically adjusting network configuration and amplifier gains based on historical and actual traffic patterns. That requires data from multiple diverse systems that are today managed in different, stovepiped ways. With virtualized and orchestrated signal routing and processing, however, network and teleport infrastructure run in the same compute environment, enabling the AI to access the full range of applicable information. What’s more, it enables incorporation of longer-term trending data that can’t be accessed via hardware today.

According to NVIDIA, integrating AI Into network operations is gaining traction at communications service providers. “Investing in AI solutions for network infrastructure has become a growing priority within the telecom industry. Network planning and operations, including integrating AI into the radio access network, was cited by 37%

of respondents as an investment priority, while another 33% said they’re investing in AI for field operations optimization.”

AI is one more growing surface for satcom integration with terrestrial infrastructure. Combine it with global initiatives uniting the two worlds behind 5G NTN and 6G, and the opportunity for satellite to grow market share looks even brighter. In fact, the NVIDIA report specifically cites using AI to monetize 5G and research and development of 6G networks as key investment areas for telecom companies. But it will require our respective systems to work together better than they do today.

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When in Doubt, Get Horizontal

1/29/2025

No, it’s not nap time. Anything but.

Facing the massive disruptions Starlink and the other mega-constellations are driving in the space industry, many are focusing on the impact vertical integration has as a driver of at least part of Starlink’s success.

With one or two exceptions, companies in our industry have historically specialized in sectors: satellite manufacturers, launch, operators and ground systems. The ecosystem starts there with sectors supporting each other. Vertical integration is when a company takes on developing solutions in or across more than one sector, perhaps even all of the supply chain. Doing so brings certain scale advantages, especially as the number of satellites in a constellation increases.

Starlink has changed our world. The company is playing a different game from traditional satellite operators, building a worldwide communications infrastructure in space that targets scale and delivery costs competitive with fiber. Traditional satellite operators have never designed systems for this type of scale or at the price points that this level of scale enables.

If that’s so, how to compete? No single simple solution, of course, but a key piece of the puzzle will be to counter going vertical by going horizontal. That means, at least in part, open standards, especially 3GPP and DIFI. And it’s for a reason often overlooked in such discussions: standards widen the available solution pool for integration, applications and partners. Their downstream effect is to spur innovation, speed to market and flexible solutions. Think IBM PC vs. Apple in the 80’s. Apple maintained control, but PCs had tens of thousands of times the available software.

Vertical integration allows a company to milk cost out of the manufacturing process, which contributes to lower prices, but like anything else there are trade-offs. At a recent APSCC conference covered by Constellations content partner Space Intel Report, Intelsat’s Asia-Pacific director, Robert Suber, commented that 3GPP’s integration of satellite capacity for 5G and beyond will be a problem for vertically integrated operators.

“The vertically integrated players are going to be on the outside,” Suber said. “If 5G will be a form of standardization for GEO operators, we will be horizontally integrating with those businesses. Proprietary technology will keep us in cottage-industry mode. We need to come together to be part of a greater ecosystem.”

The road ahead for the traditional satellite industry is not an easy one. It is being disrupted by scale in several dimensions, potentially at levels we have not dealt with in the past. The responses lie in finding ways to either achieve similar scale or to plug into scale through better integration with global network players.

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A Digital Path Forward for WGS

12/11/2024

If there’s one thing we don’t lack for in the space industry, it’s acronyms. Come to think of it, neither does the defense industry.

One acronym that carries a lot of weight in both worlds is WGS, which stands for the U.S. DoD’s Wideband Global SATCOM satellite network, which the Space Force describes as, “the backbone of the U.S. military’s Wideband satellite communications capability.” The WGS provides worldwide communications for U.S. government agencies, the Department of Defense, international partners and NATO.

WGS, like most space networks today, is anchored by legacy terminals with parabolic antennas feeding purpose-built, signal routing and processing hardware. Analog-based components from multiple vendors that make up a terminal’s service chains must go through a formal certification process to demonstrate that they will conform and operate in the WGS environment.

But how would you go about certifying a digital terminal, especially one with a phased array electronically steerable antenna (ESA)?

Successful WGS certification with its stringent analog performance requirements can be difficult to get through today even in the best of cases. And with the current certification procedures not yet fully adapted to digital architectures it can be nearly impossible. This is bad for both vendors and the U.S. military since it delays or even halts the deployment of next generation terminals and capabilities.

As the space industry continues its march toward a digital future, DISA recently hosted the ongoing MIL-STD-188-164/165 working group with both industry and WGS stakeholders including U.S. Space Force Delta 8 to explore how to proceed toward digital interoperability for large, complex, established, and mission critical space networks such as WGS. The list of topics is long, ranging from security to the specific requirements of LEO, MEO and GEO operation. While some topics have heightened importance to defense applications, the entire industry will benefit from common standards.

I’m pleased to announce that DIFI has formed a special Working Group to provide industry input into this process. Nine companies have already volunteered to be part of the new WGS Working Group, and new members are invited to join.

DIFI’s WGS and recently established ESA Working Groups will be working together closely on this effort since ESAs are increasingly important to many of the advancements in edge capabilities needed to better support the warfighter. The ESA Working Group has already begun addressing some of the specific needs for managing ESAs in the existing DIFI specification and will be proposing enhancements to the existing Open-AMIP/BMIP specifications.

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A Rising D2D Tide Can Lift All Boats

11/12/2024

Just about everybody is excited about the prospects of direct-to-device (D2D) satellite connectivity to cell phones and other mobile devices, even if guardedly so.

Some satellite operators see the potential for breaking out of their historical niches, while mobile network operators (MNO) anticipate more access to untapped remote markets with upsides big enough to pursue. Just last week, for example, Apple announced an additional $1.5 billion investment in partner Globalstar to fund a new constellation.

The ‘guarded’ part is important, however. Obstacles remain in making these two worlds work smoothly together in a way that can support high consumer service expectations.

In a recent session at Silicon Valley Space Week covered by Constellations content partner Space Intel Report, Mark Dankberg, Chairman of Viasat, highlighted two of the biggest challenges: network interoperability and national sovereignty. Dankberg is also Chairman of the Mobile Satellite Services Association (MSSA), a non-profit industry association formed earlier this year to advance global mobile connectivity for D2D and Internet of Things (IoT) services.

To greatly summarize Dankberg on network interoperability, mobile satellite services providers should make their networks compatible not just with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard that enables 5G, but also with each other’s satellites.

As Peter de Selding wrote for Space Intel Report, “Dankberg said the mobile satellite service industry is faced with the same question posed to MNOs years ago: Remain stove-piped with your own network or open it up to competing providers to allow seamless roaming for customers, and to share the cost of cell towers?”

My (extremely) modest contribution to Dankberg’s premise is just this, it will have benefits far beyond just D2D.

Here’s the good news: if satcom network operators follow the 3GPP standard for 5G release 17 or later, they’ll have the technical solution needed for nearly all satcom interoperability: D2D, low data rate IOT, broadband high data rate applications and more. And not just between satellite operators, but with telecommunications infrastructure they connect to as well.

The combination of vertical and horizonal infrastructure interoperability enabled by the 3GPP standards will open new markets, while also making satellite services simpler for consumers and bring additional benefits, such as more effective terminal-to-beam assignments and better mobility in a spot beam satellite architecture.

And Dankberg is also right about his second major point, sovereignty concerns will be a major challenge for regulators which must be addressed. I couldn’t agree more, and, again, not just for D2D. National security factors always have been a challenge, especially for satellites.

That said, however, while interoperability between networks is one area of my professional expertise, interoperability between nations isn’t, so I’ll leave that one to the MSSA.

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