Software-defined satellites (SDS) are changing the way we think about satellite capability. Where traditional satellites are static and slow to change, SDSs can shift capacity on-demand, support more flexible business models and improve network efficiency—and they’re accelerating the convergence of satcom and telecom.

Constellations spoke with Carmel Ortiz, Senior Vice President of Technology and Innovation at Intelsat, about how these new satellites are disrupting the industry and addressing key market challenges. Read the four biggest takeaways below, or listen to the full podcast episode.

Takeaway 1: High demand for satellite capacity has turned satcom into a household name.

“What we’ve seen over the past few years is nothing short of a transformation of our industry and the markets that we serve,” said Ortiz. Industry capabilities have radically evolved over the last few years, with the introduction of new launch capabilities, reusable rockets, mega LEO constellations, flat panel antennas, ESAs, mobile terminals, and the convergence of telco and satellite markets.

“What these transformations have done is brought satellite communications into the mainstream,” she said. These new applications, and the increased attention from industries all over the world, is putting enormous pressure on the supply of satellite capacity. To meet that ever-growing demand, operators must deploy more capacity than ever before.

“We’ve gone from being an exotic technology to being a household name,” said Ortiz. “Before Starlink, there wasn’t cocktail conversation about satcom.”

Takeaway 2: SDS’s offer better business models and more flexible capacity options to the end user.

Software-defined satellites are more flexible than ever before. “In the same way that your smartphone now is completely flexible, and you can add apps and change the color of the screen—we’re doing that on orbit now,” Ortiz said. Full flexibility means that the direction and scope of satellite beams can be managed dynamically, even after launch.

Software-defined satellites also ensure that capacity is available when and where the end user needs it, which means for more economical solutions for both the user and the provider. “We can provide the service more economically with these software-defined satellites. They’re much more efficient,” she said.

In the past, satellite providers had to bet on where capacity demand would be, resulting in what she called ‘unloved beams’, or beams placed over geographic areas with little to no demand, and subsequently no end user.

Now, software-defined satellites make it possible for providers to “just put the satellite up there, and look and see where customers are, and put the beams down where they’re needed,” said Ortiz, a more flexible system that effectively cuts out the guessing game and improves efficiency.

Takeaway 3: On-the-move industries like aerospace can benefit from ‘follow-me’ satellite beams.

“Think about shining a flashlight, from way up in GEO orbit,” said Ortiz. This beam could follow an airplane or a fleet of ships as they move across large areas of the Earth. The beam can track a single terminal as it moves, minimizing the need for beam switches. “Normally, when you have static beams that are putting capacity down in fixed areas on the earth… the airplane switches from one beam to another,” she explained. The follow-me beam prevents any discontinuity from beam switches.

Follow-me beams can shadow flight paths and provide extra support to peak demand areas, such as airplane hub cities. “With software-defined satellites, we can park a high throughput beam over a major hub city to alleviate the congestion,” she said. Demand for this type of service may increase as more airlines begin to invest in better in-flight connectivity and eventually offer free models so that “anybody that’s on a plane can have connectivity.”

Other on-the-move industries, such as land mobility, connected vehicles or precision agriculture would also benefit from this type of satellite technology. “Wherever demand is dynamic over time and geography… that is ideal for SDS’s,” said Ortiz.

Takeaway 4: SDS’s provide the scale necessary to manage the integration of satellite and terrestrial networks.

To meet demand for 5G, operators will need a lot of capacity. The convergence of satellite and telecom “brings significant scale and increases demand for our industry,” said Ortiz. “If you think about consumers with smartphones, and connected vehicles roaming between terrestrial and satellite 5G base stations, you can start to imagine the load that it’s going to add to that network.”

This demand for abundant capacity will also translate to an increased overall number of satellite beams, including flexible ‘follow-me’ beams. “When I think about five years from now, I imagine hundreds or even thousands of beams from software-defined satellites providing capacity around the globe,” Ortiz said.

In the coming decade, successfully providing end users with undisrupted, continuous connectivity will be key in managing the convergence of terrestrial and satellite networks. “Users don’t care whether they’re connected via satellite or terrestrial, whether it’s LEO, MEO or GEO,” said Ortiz. “All they know is that they have unlimited ubiquitous connectivity. That’s where we want to be.”

For more on digital signal processing and 5G in satcom, listen to the full podcast episode.

Explore More:

What Role Will Non-Terrestrial Networks Play in 6G?

Podcast: Consolidation, Sustainability and the Future of Satellite Innovation

Can Software-Defined Space Networks Transform Disaster Response Connectivity?