If the past is prologue, then the path forward for satellite industry will see a number of technology concepts embraced by IT and telecom that have preceded it.

Constellations spoke with Luc-Yves Pagal Vinette, product marketing director for 5G service orchestration, network slicing, and service assurance at Amdocs about the satellite industry’s transformation in space and on the ground, and the opportunity to move to a new era of more flexible, scalable boundaryless end-to-end service.

Pagal Vinette shed light on a number of key concepts from IT and telecom, including cloud native, network automation, orchestration, carrier ethernet, and network slicing, and their application in the satellite industry.

He said that although satellite can bring value and reach like no other, the ground segment would need to further transform to support software-defined payloads and LEO and MEO constellations in orbit, and to better integrate with telecom on the ground.

A Shared History

Pagal Vinette drew similarities between today’s satellite industry with the telecom verticals of the past that depended on hardware to support value-add service before moving to more software-oriented services. To solve that “conundrum,” he said the roadmap ahead would include evolving from physical network functions to virtual network functions (VNFs) and to “cloud native” architecture, which fully appropriates the software on top of hardware to become extremely flexible, light and responsive.

He stated that different verticals exist in the telecommunication space as silos of sorts, but that being cloud native, with its tools for observability “across the board” have essentially “broken up the boundaries between verticals so there will be no boundaries anymore.”

Scaling horizontally and virtually

To make the point, he compared how changing a service in the cloud environment is “totally different.”

“With the cloud, (you just push the common line and) in microseconds or milliseconds, you have the change implemented,” he said, allowing it to scale horizontally to replicate a service on the same or different device, and to scale up virtually to augment capacity.

“With cloud native, you’re fundamentally changing the dynamics of what we call services, what we call service functions, to become much more responsive and light.”

Pagal Vinette was asked if he expected satellite network operators to embrace the massive scale of cloud computing as telecom providers have to extend reach and monetize customers. He noted that all operators are challenged to build out points of presence (POPS), and that he wouldn’t be surprised to see satellite operators collaborate with public cloud providers, or ‘hyperscalers,’ in the near future in the same way as major tier 1 and tier 2 service providers or mobile network operators (MNOs) have.

To the Edge

Part of that reach, he explained, needs to be at the edge, the extended portion of the service infrastructure that connects to the IP network, in order to provide better user experience.

To keep up with and leverage higher capacity lower latency LEOs and MEOs, Pagal Vinette said the notion of point of presence will become extremely important for satellite network operators in order to be closer to the end user.

“It means you need to improve the quality of service and experience similar to what you enjoy from mobile network operators (MNOs) or communication service providers,” he said, pointing to why satellite ground networks need to advance.

Edge capability, he said, will be needed to provide more “enriched services,” and to bring the service and applications closer to the end-user to improve the “quality and fluidity of the service.”

An Overlay Approach to the Network

Pagal Vinette explained that with MEO and LEO constellations the payload is in effect distributed across the entire constellation,” requiring more of an ‘overlay’ approach to the network. While software-defined networking (SDN) is designed for flexibility, Pagal Vinette said its use to reconfigure an onboard device or service is of a more siloed approach, and that the newer evolving concept is “network automation” to address the broader area.

“Instead of the silo, you need to align the network on an end-to-end basis, which will make networks much more dynamic but also complex.” That is why there is an evolution to tap into the cloud, to leverage all the requirements of network automation and the flexibility to adapt the network to changing conditions.

An Evolution to Orchestrating

As service infrastructures continue to evolve, Pagal Vinette said that networks will become “much more hybrid than what we can imagine today,” referring to a combination of different network types and domains. That underscored the need for service orchestration, the ability to automate end-to-end service for faster, less costly delivery.

Noting how service orchestration addresses the different domains for an operator, Pagal Vinette explained that for a mobile network operator and a satellite network operator, the need to orchestrate a radio access network (RAN), transport and 5G core would fundamentally be the same.

A service might be comprised of different physical, virtual, and cloud native functions, but the operator will have “the same tools and methods to monitor and observe them, and on top of it, the service orchestration across the board, regardless of the components making up the service.”

The END- (-to-End) Goal

While the various concepts of edge- hybrid- and cloud native computing may seem new and more complex to those in the world of satellite, Pagal Vinette offered the reminder that “the reward is exceptional.”

With satellite operators challenged to “manage everything,” and with silos of management still in place, he emphasized the need for end-to-end service orchestration and ability to monitor and observe it all.

By leveraging hyperscalers and orchestration, “You can imagine the flexibility and collaboration that network operators can embrace together, regardless if they are a satellite or mobile.”

Connecting the Dots with Telecom

Pagal Vinette also highlighted the importance of carrier ethernet to the industry, to enable more seamless integration with telecom networks.

Advanced by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), he described carrier ethernet as a ubiquitous technology to facilitate exchange between satellite network operators and other types of operators, including cable, mobile, fiber, and optical.

“Carrier ethernet will play a significant role to connect the dots between what satellite network operators will provide in terms of robustness and flexibility in the way that the service is composed.”

Just a Slice, Please

The next large evolution for the industry Pagal Vinette spoke of was “network slicing,” which he described as basically a stitching mechanism between resources and capabilities of given domains.

“A network slice can be extended across different players, even companies that are collaborating together, as well to extend boundaries for a business or operational footprint.”

As an example he described a 5G MNO collaborating with the satellite virtual network operator, with the end-to-end slice encompassing the domain from the satellite network operators to what the mobile network operator provides to contribute to the slice.

“This is where I see the evolution of collaboration and competition, of fusing together a new generation of services for end-users or enterprise.”

The Path Ahead

Emphasizing the significant role satellite will play in extending the reach of other technologies, particularly that of 5G, Pagal Vinette noted the variety of instances and applications, from oil and gas platforms at sea, to rural and underserved locations anywhere without fiber.

“There are a number of use cases that 5G will only be possible with the collaboration from satellite network operators.”

To hear more about these concepts and how they are being applied to enable more dynamic satellite ground networks, click here.