Constellations sat down with Chris Taylor, CEO of Aalyria Technologies, a global advanced networking and laser communications company. The discussion revolved around the future of connectivity, the need for more bandwidth technology, the benefits of coherent light free space optics and AI.
The Future of Multi-domain Connectivity
Taylor stated that many of the systems launched into space don’t really talk to each other and the idea of a hybrid space architecture is to “allow the U.S. government to take advantage of everything that the commercial space community is trying to offer and make use of it across all of their networks going forward.”
Taylor explained that Aalyria’s Spacetime platform, a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 9 product, is designed to operate networks that include dynamic physical link topologies and highly directional beams across land, sea, air and space. It was designed to be multi-domain, so if a satellite link should be compromised, Spacetime can reroute the traffic through terrestrial or other satellite nodes. Conversely, should a terrestrial link be compromised, traffic can be rerouted to aerial or satellite nodes. “The whole combination of predictive analytics, dynamic rerouting, customized network requirements and multi-domain capabilities together, ensure network resilience between the nodes, and that is all inside Spacetime’s architecture.”
The Need for More Bandwidth Technology
“Spectrum is finite,” said Taylor. “Not only that, it has a filing priority system that gives some companies advantages over others. It’s highly inefficiently used today as well. Spectrum, RF spectrum has properties that create interference and that also make it obvious that you’re using that spectrum, being able to trace it back to advice or platform. So, there are limits to its use.”
Taylor pointed out that there are alternatives to RF spectrum, such as the use of coherent light in commercial frequencies. “Governments can then take a look and say, for this case, I may want to use RF, for this case, I may want to use light, free space optics, optical. So, the idea is that you’re broadening the choice, you’re increasing the speed, decreasing the detectability, and really opening a whole bunch of capability where it otherwise didn’t exist.”
Free Space Optics For Increased Capacity
Taylor explained that Tightbeam, Aalyria’s atmosphere optimized optical communication solution, uses coherent light free space optics. Taylor said, “When they’re in phase and in color, we’re able to deliver 100 gigs per [second], 400 gigs per [second], up to terabit per second capability.”
The ability to drive that type of capacity into space allows operators to take advantage of greater compute resources opening the door to new innovations and applications. “You give really, really smart people a better sandbox in which they can innovate and discover,” Taylor said. “The idea of more is better has been prevalent in tech development since the beginning of tech development, and we’re excited … to deliver that capability to both commercial companies and of course governments and allies to be able to use that type of capacity to develop new ways of moving data and communicating with each other.”
The New Normal and AI
“The new normal is rapidly changing network topologies,” continued Taylor. “And that means everything has to change with it. The cell phone infrastructure of the planet has been around static cell phone towers, and now we’re about to put cell phone towers in space doing 17,000 miles an hour around the Earth. This is a different and dynamic topology to be working with.”
The conversation turned to what is on everyone’s mind today, artificial intelligence (AI) and whether it is an enabler to managing and making connected networks more efficient. Taylor explained that while Aalyria uses AI for its Tightbeam and Spacetime offerings, it’s not necessarily appropriate for all use cases. “AI is everywhere,” he noted. “It’s all the hype, but when you get down to whether or not it is good for your thing, it requires a lot of research. You don’t want to throw AI in just for the sake of saying that you’ve thrown AI in. You may not get the results that you want.”
Click here to learn more about free-space optics, spectrum alternatives and hybrid space architectures.
