Panel: Terrestrial/Non-Terrestrial Interoperability Being Driven by Market and Tech
Market demand for interoperability, as well as new technological capabilities, is pushing satellite and terrestrial communications toward one another, connectivity panelists said during a Via Satellite event Tuesday. Andy Sutton, BT Group principal network architect, said there could be significant satellite/terrestrial interoperability within three to five years.
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Novaspace Managing Director Nathan de Ruiter said satellite/terrestrial communications today face the same challenges mobile networks did in the early 1990s, when nations often had various network technologies, and there was no phone interoperability from country to country. The Global System for Mobile Communications standard let mobile networks communicate across borders. A similar standardization is needed for global terrestrial/non-terrestrial network (NTN) interoperability, he said.
Ivan De Baere, vice president-system architecture at ST Engineering iDirect, said satcom evolved in a technological silo because its mission was connectivity where terrestrial couldn't reach. The result was proprietary hardware and software, as well as user requirements that didn't necessarily align with telecom standards, he said. The market is now seeking greater interoperability, with direct-to-device service being the first step, he added.
Satellite radios are moving toward using the 5G NTN standard set by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, which is the first step toward alignment with terrestrial standards, said De Baere. Also driving that meetup is the greater use of virtual networks by the satellite and telecom industries, along with growth of low earth orbit and multi-orbit satellite systems, he said.