As OneWeb gears up to support inflight connectivity via its Ku-band Low Earth Orbit satellite network this year, and with Amazon’s Kuiper and Telesat’s Lightspeed Ka-band LEO constellations on the horizon — amongst others — multi-orbit IFC, as complemented by GEO and other networks, is poised to make its mark in aviation.
ST Engineering iDirect is in a unique position to support this burgeoning market, as both the market leader in satellite ground infrastructure across the mobility sector, and a prominent provider of aero modems. Indeed, the company is putting the building blocks in place right now to do just that. RGN interviewed a ST Engineering iDirect spokesperson to learn more.
RGN: In an interview with Satellite Mobility World, ST Engineering iDirect CEO Don Claussen revealed that as industry transitions to a multi-orbit environment, ST Engineering iDirect “has reorganized and refocused to provide a new integrated next-generation platform which brings together iDirect and Newtec”. ST Engineering iDirect current-gen modems have shown themselves capable of switching between GEOs and NGSOs and accommodating “make before break” in aero. Will the next-generation integrated platform mentioned by Claussen support aero, and if so, can you share color around its anticipated capabilities?
ST Engineering iDirect: ST Engineering iDirect has always been at the forefront of industry transformation. We have offered ground segment solutions to leverage the capabilities of high throughput (at first) and now software-defined satellites. We have developed highly efficient waveforms and delivered a wide array of modem offerings serving several different vertical segments. With the combined aero offerings of our legacy brands, we are in an optimal position to address the growing needs of both commercial and business aviation market segments.
With plummeting launch costs and the introduction of software-defined satellites, there is growing interest for service providers to convert to a multi-orbit environment that brings an influx of capacity and enables them to deploy highly scalable networks. As such, our next-generation platform will be focused on the requisite principles of virtualization, standardization and unification of technologies. Aero continues to be a key focus for our customers and so it is critical for us as part of our next-generation platform strategy.
Building on a heritage of advanced mobility leadership and innovation, our next-generation platform will be deliberately designed to support aero customers and use cases. The platform will include new or enhanced capabilities needed to operate a diverse and global aero network such as a network management system engineered for increased scalability and operational efficiencies; radio resource control for dynamic resource management; global bandwidth management for dynamic bandwidth allocation; advanced mobility features; improved return waveforms for higher efficiency and throughput; and roaming capabilities between same service provider networks.
RGN: To accommodate the multi-orbit environment, satellite and aviation stakeholders are pushing for software-defined modems. As mentioned by Claussen, ST Engineering iDirect has already taken initial steps towards virtualization and software-defined, but he expects the firm “to lead the market by making available a virtualized software-defined method of deployment.” Does ST Engineering iDirect have a general timeline for when this method will be employed in aero? Where is the company at in development; and what are the next steps?
ST Engineering iDirect: The global inflight connectivity (IFC) market has acknowledged the challenges of current connectivity solutions which are heavily driven by proprietary offerings. These offerings are not flexible to interoperate, often limited in performance and once equipped are difficult to upgrade without a heavy uplift. The requirements set forward by service providers, network operators and now even the airframers are clear that next-generation IFC solutions should be multi-orbit (GEO, MEO, LEO, HEO) and multi-access capable based on common hardware.
We are leveraging our core competency of developing complex aero solutions combined with our focused efforts on standardization and virtualization to develop our next-generation aero solution, which will be based on a flexible hardware and software with software-defined capabilities to easily integrate support for multi-orbit and multi-access functions. We are actively collaborating with our integrator partners, network operators and Seamless Air Alliance (SAA) members to finalize the requirements for the proposed architecture. It will feature a modem card with similar form factor to existing offerings but with an architecture that will offer multi-fold throughput improvements along with a reference design that will enable the flexibility to integrate alternate waveforms on a single modem card. The ability to host multiple waveforms and switch between different orbits will provide a seamless and flexible integration enabling roaming across different service provider networks. Development and launch timelines are still in the works and we will share more details at a later date.
RGN: ST Engineering iDirect has previously talked about what needs to happen on the ground to facilitate New Space. Is the ground segment evolving fast enough to accommodate the new multi-orbit, terabit-level capacity? Can ST Engineering iDirect highlight any notable new developments in automation, virtualization and orchestration, as it moves to a more “standards-based, fully integrated, end-to-end, cloud-based service delivery?”
ST Engineering iDirect: Standards are a critical part of ground segment evolution. Converting hardware into software where it is installed and managed remotely via third-party data centers will give satellite operators more flexibility over their networks and speed up how quickly they can respond to customer demands. Along with other industry players, we have spearheaded the work on standards through our membership of the Digital Intermediate Frequency Interoperability (DIFI) consortium. Our work with DIFI has included important proof of concept (PoC) work to demonstrate the interoperability of the standard.
We are currently collaborating with cloud service providers (CSP), particularly Microsoft Azure, to drive adoption of virtualization and cloud. At this point, we are at a PoC stage. We set out to virtualize key aspects of our modem and baseband ground segment to enable our satcom solutions to run in the cloud. To that end, we have been working on the abstraction of the software functionality from the modem hardware and porting our Modem Baseband Functions to a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) compute infrastructure as well as leveraging cloud services and tooling to orchestrate these baseband functions onto the cloud infrastructure. The next step is a PoC deploying our network processing virtualized functions on Azure Cloud Infrastructure.
Our ultimate goal is to empower our customers’ journey to digitization and cloudification, which create opportunities, but also challenges, for them. Our next-generation capabilities are engineered to tackle these challenges, including a central cloud native Network Management System (NMS); deployable On-Premises (hosted in-house) and Off-Premises (hosted by a third party); as well as Network Processing so that we are able to leverage the capabilities of the CSP’s infrastructure with a flexible choice of deployment options. Our baseband processing will comprise the creation of a digital interface resulting in higher flexibility by using Radio over IP. Finally, by virtualizing the gateway, virtual baseband functions will become available allowing the use of COTS infrastructure.
RGN: There is a movement afoot to have a common aero modem form factor. And, as a member of the SAA, ST Engineering iDirect is understood to be active in this space. In ST Engineering iDirect’s perspective, what is the benefit of moving toward a standard form factor, and when might manufacturers converge on a form factor? Satcom Guru Peter Lemme recently noted that it takes roughly three to five years for hardware manufacturers to converge on a form factor, but that software-defined modems “are leapfrogging that”. Does ST Engineering iDirect expect software-defined modems to leapfrog the current aero modem hardware form factor work?
ST Engineering iDirect: We have already reviewed and provided our feedback to the requirements set forward by the SAA group around the common/standard form factor for the aero board and we conform to most of those requirements. The common form factor initiative was mainly driven as a stop gap — until new-generation or software-defined aero modems are available — to ensure that the current aero modem cards, although designed to support proprietary waveforms, at least confirm to the form and fit of the current ARINC 600 enclosure. This simplifies the chassis design for integrators where they can easily plug in an alternate modem card or integrate two different modem cards within a dual MODMAN enclosure.
Development of a new aero modem and its ultimate deployment for service on an airframe is driven by longer timelines (e.g., development, integration, DO-160 testing and certification, STCs), typically ranging anywhere from two to four years. Until then, the common form factor work is essential to maintain consistency of the MODMAN designs; in fact, this will act as prerequisite or rather a standard for all modem manufacturers working on their next-generation aero/software-defined modems.
RGN: Hughes has developed a OneWeb aero modem module that is capable of being integrated inside of the pressure vessel of aircraft. Hughes is also OneWeb’s ground segment and modem partner, in addition to delivering an aero ESA. Does ST Engineering iDirect see any movement on the part of OneWeb to open up the ecosystem, allowing ST Engineering iDirect to support OneWeb transmissions via its modem? From a modem perspective, is ST Engineering iDirect precluded from playing in multi-orbit IFC that includes OneWeb’s service (including those being offered by Intelsat and Panasonic) if the OneWeb ecosystem does not open up? Any clarity is appreciated.
ST Engineering iDirect: While we cannot comment on OneWeb’s plans, closed systems (i.e., end-to-end vertically integrated ecosystems which deploy their own modems and hubs), by design, limit opportunities for us to partner with them.
As a closed system, service providers and end customers are “locked” into the service and terminal. We see a future where operators and service providers will demand their satcom terminals to roam across networks with universal modems and multiple providers.
This is what we plan to enable as a function of our future next-generation platform — built around standards, in collaboration with an open ecosystem of operators and terminal providers.
RGN: We’ve written in the past how ST Engineering iDirect’s ground systems have formed the cornerstone of Panasonic’s Gen 3 network. In the last year, we’ve witnessed material improvements in Panasonic’s inflight Wi-Fi service. Given that the program is now several years old, can ST Engineering iDirect share any learnings from this program? Additionally, as Intelsat and Panasonic transition to multi-orbit IFC for new installs, is ST Engineering iDirect working with them to support their solutions, perhaps the GEO-specific portion?
ST Engineering iDirect: We are not able to comment publicly on any customer’s strategy for the future. We continue to closely support customers Panasonic and Intelsat and their respective networks for IFC, as well as many others. It is clear from input across IFC network operators and providers that a new era of convergence of technology and innovation is starting to make an enormous impact on the IFC networks of the future.
Related Articles:
- Intelsat shares color around multi-orbit aero ESA
- Panasonic’s Wade on how OneWeb LEO differentiates in aero
- Seamless member Kontron pushes for common aero modem form factor
- Software-defined aero modem in the spotlight as Intelsat mulls MEO
- Key attribute of Stellar Blu ESA package could ease Boeing linefit
- ST Engineering iDirect breaks new ground to support New Space
- Airbus and Boeing drive IFC interoperability via Seamless Air Alliance
Featured image credited to Mary Kirby
