Simpler Satellite Networks, International Partnerships Seen by Executives

The industry is working toward making satellite communications simpler with less risk and less technology, executives said. The goal of the industry ultimately is to literally disappear because the size of gear will shrink, said Dave Bettinger, iDirect chief technology officer. iDirect “wants to effectively make that happen.” There are better ways for satellite access technologies to integrate with ground systems, he said. IDirect expects to see exponential growth in integrating with ground infrastructure, he added.

Satellite operators must be mindful of the separation between service delivery and connectivity delivery, said David Bath, Inmarsat’s technology strategy and business development director. The industry “was focused on connectivity delivery for a long time” and the evolution in the market will move toward application-based configuration, he said. “As more and more services turn to HD, “satellite is going to have a problem adapting to that,” said Creekbaum.

The executives agreed that the increased need for bandwidth creates a challenge for the satellite market. With converged data, voice, VoIP and other features, “the bandwidth demand is increasing exponentially,” Creekbaum said. It’s a huge issue and, while Ka-band technology addresses some short-term needs for a consumer-based satellite system, additional improvement is needed, he added. In an environment of mobility, “it’s about how do we get the information efficiency better and get rid of information we've already carried over the air,” Bath said.

Some changes in the satellite market include IP-focused networks and ways to grow bandwidth, executives said. The satellite network has to become more IP-centric, Bettinger said: That’s “what you'll see ultimately.” There’s going to be a tremendous growth “away from macro cells,” which is the only way to increase bandwidth for users, said Paul Wilford, Alcatel-Lucent research director. Satellite markets should understand the way end-users want to use the network, Creekbaum said. Engineering teams can then figure out whether there is a better way to provide services compared to how it’s been done in the past, he said.

The satellite market will need to work toward more international cooperation concerning military and space operations, some space policy professionals said on a later panel. The Department of Defense and the intelligence community are figuring out how to partner with U.S. allies to “prevent bad actors from exacerbating operations in space,” said Col. Jeff Farnsworth, space policy implementation director at the Defense Department. The department, international allies and the commercial space sector should consider changing architecture and acquisition approaches, he said. Cooperative development with other countries should be examined and could include combined constellations and operations, he added. Multiple control and diverse communications paths “would help us in our strategic objective,” along with leveraging commercial satellite operations, he said.

The commercial satellite industry is a global telecom infrastructure business “with a government solutions overlay,” said Robert Osterthaler, SES Government Solutions president. Government organizations will continue relying on commercial spacecraft, he said. “Leveraging commercial space is a challenging, but centrally important thing that we have to do.” To leverage the commercial market, a more direct dialogue between government and operators is critical, he said.

The Canadian government is facing challenges in satellite communications in the Canadian arctic, said Charity Weeden, an official in the Canadian Defence Liaison staff. As defense increases its footprint in the Arctic, “so too will the role satellite communications plays for the security and defense of Canada,” she said. The benefit of international cooperation isn’t solely about funding, she said: Cooperation can “mitigate unintended interference … and promotes common rules of the road.” Although each nation has its own needs, “nations should partner where those needs intersect,” she said. Farnsworth said collaboration also can increase resilience and deterrence: “Any space aggressor has a more complex problem to deal with.” Not only would a bad actor deal with the U.S., but with a number of countries, he added.