Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) satellite providers are increasingly capturing a larger portion of satcom revenues – a market share that traditional GEO operators used to dominate. With NGSOs offering high bandwidth services at more affordable price points, legacy operators must find new and innovative ways to compete in an arena where LEO mega-constellations have swept through and completely disrupted. One solution that provides traditional operators with game-changing influence can be found in the digital transformation of ground system infrastructure.
In the new white paper, “Meeting the Challenge of Starlink and the Mega-Constellations with Software Ground,” Analysys Mason explores how digital transformation through software-defined ground segments can provide advantages to satellite operators and service providers that would allow them to compete against the growing dominance of NGSO providers.
“This white paper offers a road map for how to compete more effectively in today’s disrupted satellite industry,” said Luke Wyles, an analyst at Analysys Mason and co-author of the white paper. “In this new environment, incumbent satellite players must adopt orchestrated, software-enabled ground that maximizes flexible assets, enables scalable deployment of advanced services, and supports interoperability through adoption of open, evolving standards.”
From providing service diversity to end customers, to creating operational advantages through virtualization, here are four ways that an orchestrated, software-defined ground segment can provide satellite operators and service providers with an upper hand in a highly competitive and congested satcom marketplace.
Boosting GEO’s Service Diversity Through Software-Defined Space and Ground
Mega-constellations in LEO have advantages over GEO providers as it pertains to scale and capacity pricing, but they are only able to sustain these advantages due to the narrow range of services and desk support they offer the market. The needs of smaller market segments at the consumer and small business levels may be met with the services LEOs can provide, but enterprise-grade clients will expect much more in terms of service diversity.
For example, due to the low altitude of LEO systems, the regional capacity allocation of LEO mega-constellations is limited. This can lead to capacity constraints in subscriber-dense areas. Unlike LEO, GEO operators have much more flexibility, and they can increase capacity supply in congested regions without having to grow the global constellation.
Software-defined satellites and ground segments would capitalize on this pre-existing advantage that GEO operators have over LEO. Through end-to-end automation in both the space and ground layers, satellite operators can allocate capacity dynamically to wherever it is needed. As a result, they will achieve higher contention ratios on their in-orbit capacity.
Maximizing Space-Layer Capabilities Through a Software-Defined Ground Segment
Traditional operators hold is a major advantage over lower orbits in their ability to alter the power, shape, direction, and spectrum allocation of service beams. This service flexibility is greatly enhanced and maximized through software-defined satellites whose resource utilization is controlled by a software-defined ground architecture. Software-defined space and ground segments would enable traditional operators to maximize the full use of their available power by adaptively steering bandwidth to meet real-time demand patterns, and, in turn, avoid the capacity waste of covering quiet cells with fixed beams.
In addition to service beam flexibility, there is a growing demand and expectation from enterprise-grade clients to leverage services that include highly flexible, multi-layer networks. End-customers want to be able to connect to multiple providers for optimal service performance and reliability. “The best of all possible worlds for enterprise clients is a hybrid service,” explained Robert Bell, Executive Director of the World Teleport Association. “This would involve some NGSO, some GEO, and maybe even L-band depending upon where a customer is. It would ensure that you have real diversity and real uptime.”
Virtualized, orchestrated ground segments will be essential to meet these multi-orbit service demands. A software-defined ground will be able to flexibly coordinate assets at scale and outperform a single-orbit system. These orchestrated multi-orbit networks will boost the service diversity of GEO operators that customers would be unable to acquire through LEO mega-constellations.
Creating Operational Advantages through Virtualization at the Gateway and Edge
Satellite operators and service providers that pivot to software-defined architectures will be able to leverage cloud-native hubs and operate with an enhanced, orchestrated edge. This virtualization and use of cloud-native operations will not only boost deployment efficiency, but will enable cost efficiency, network resiliency and greater operational flexibility.
Traditional analog signals will eventually degrade with cable distance and routing. Through virtualization, operators will employ digital intermediate frequency (IF) that will no longer face that degradation risk but will instead deliver improved signal quality. Digital IF is also accompanied by cost-efficiency benefits, as ethernet switches for digital IF are modular, mass-produced and are sourced more cheaply. The failover processes associated with digital IF are also much simpler to set-up than traditional analog. This in turn boosts network resilience and better ensures uninterrupted service to customers.
The move towards virtualization also signals the move away from purpose-built systems. Instead of requiring specific modems for every potential satellite, orbit or network that a customer may want to connect to, a virtualized environment would enable greater flexibility and allow networks to be less tied to specific operators and vendors.
Supporting Interoperable Services and 5G through Virtualization
Adopting 3GPP standards for 5G NTN – and operating through a massive open ecosystem – will be critical for satellite operators to improve their value propositions and have a means to compete with the pace of innovation coming out of the NGSO space. “We are operating in a 5G NTN and 3GPP world,” said Bell. “[GEO operators] are in a great position now. The NGSOs have set up themselves as a verticalized business. If [GEOs] can get out ahead, the opportunities that we’ll have are ones that are not available to most of the NGSOs.”
As satcom services continue to evolve and be comprised of a blend of orbits, operators, and their offerings, having services that are standards-compliant will be appealing to customers – as they can avoid operator and vendor lock-in.
For satellite operators to participate in this 5G ecosystem – as well as prepare for AI-native 6G – having a virtualized ground infrastructure is critical. Those participating in the 5G ecosystem will be able to remotely upgrade their networks according to the living standards that accompany with each 3GPP release.
For in-depth analysis on how satellite operators and service providers can digitally transform their ground segments to compete with the explosion of NGSO services and offerings, download the full white paper, “Meeting the Challenge of Starlink and the Mega-Constellations with Software Ground.”
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