Two of the most interesting briefings I attended at the Satellite 2023 show last week were both breakfasts, and both spent much of their time focused on two big themes: the virtualization of network infrastructure and network interoperability between satellite and telcos. (The cheese Danish was good, but that’s beside the point.)
The first was sponsored by Northern Sky Research and entitled “Satcom’s Burning Questions.” Several analysts made the point that direct-to-device (D2D) is the hottest topic in both the satellite and mobile industries. NSR Partner Chris Baugh noted that the convergence of satellite and terrestrial was on everyone’s lips two weeks earlier at Mobile World Conference, the world’s largest communications trade show. Satellite had not even been a sub-topic previously, let alone one of the conference’s main issues.
D2D, like many other opportunities for telecom-satellite cooperation, is enabled by 5G and the fact that there is now a foundational standard for satellites to communicate with billions of mobile devices worldwide. Adding my own two cents, a widely adopted DIFI standard is the necessary first step to ensuring that interoperability occurs within the space side of that network infrastructure.
The future is about integration and scalability, according to NSR, and the DIFI standard is an enabler of both.
According to NSR analysts, fiber used to be the satellite industry’s biggest threat. As fiber expanded, satellite’s footprint contracted. Now fiber might be satellite’s greatest opportunity. As satellite integrates with fiber standards, such as MEF, the two technologies together can extend the reach of both.
The second breakfast was sponsored by Kratos (the company I work for, in addition to serving as Chairman of DIFI) and featured a panel of executives from ALL.SPACE, Blue Halo, Intelsat and Kratos. All happen to be members of DIFI, including panelist Carmel Ortiz of Intelsat who sits with me on DIFI’s board of directors.
This briefing examined some of the current myths surrounding satcom virtualization and whether it’s ready for primetime. Panelist Jeremy Turpin, co-founder of ALL.SPACE summed it up in just a few words: “The earlier we get to digital, the better. The fewer coax cables we have, the better.” Ortiz looked ahead to a future where we don’t think about digitizers at all anymore, they are just embedded in the space network infrastructure. She cited ETL and Work Microwave (both DIFI members), that recently announced they are releasing frequency converters with embedded digitizers. When digitized signals can be shared and operated upon by all network elements, whether physical or virtual, based upon a conforming standard like DIFI, MEF or 5G, it enables operation at scale and benefits all.
Read more from DIFI Consortium.
