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.
