Sharpening the Space Network’s Edge
2/6/2024 
My recent post about satellite D2D service triggered a flashback for Reino Tantilla, who replied remembering the days when flip phones, digital assistants and cameras were three separate devices. “What’s the next step in convergence?” he wondered.
As Yogi Berra said, “It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” In the case of satellite ground systems, however, we’re already seeing the next step in convergence taking shape: reinvention of what we mean by the edge of a satellite network. Predicting here is pretty safe because many in our industry are following the same playbook the IT and networking worlds already used to enable previous generations of convergence—digitalization, virtualization and standards.
In the satellite world, especially for satcom, the network’s edge has almost always meant an end-user terminal, usually consisting of an antenna, a fixed-purpose hardware modem and some kind of user interface. When you wanted to do more, or if you needed to support multiple missions, services or waveforms, you had additional dedicated equipment, as in Reino’s remembered multi-device world of the 90s.
That is until everything gets digitized, virtualized and orchestrated on standards-based platforms, as has happened with smartphones and is starting to happen now in satellite. Then, purpose-built, proprietary terminals can be replaced with generic compute (called uCPEs in the terrestrial network world) that can host multiple virtual modems, sensors, apps, recorders, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, security functions and more, all on the same device. The more satellite can be digitized, the more convergence can result.
In fact, the whole idea of what constitutes an edge is changing and converging. You could argue that multiple and hosted payloads were a step toward convergence in a sense, and as satellites and payloads increasingly become software-defined and multi-function, they become more like converged “edges,” not just a bend in the pipe. And the “places” where a satellite operator’s network meets a terrestrial network are edges where functionality can be added to better manage and orchestrate each set of systems. Sensor arrays can similarly be made more flexible, intelligent and convergent network edges.
Satellite D2D efforts have promise because smartphones and the networks behind them have already been digitized, standardized and stabilized enough that satellite can follow suit, eventually plugging into terrestrial network operating environments. How much capability we can offer from satellites will depend on resolving a few physics problems and getting our network systems integrated with theirs. The latter is certainly doable, and I have faith we’ll figure out the former enough to make an impact in the market.
