Lunar communications. The world’s first off-planet telecoms operator. The lunar economy. These are perhaps not the first concepts that delegates at a conference covering the satellite ground segment expected to hear about. But they do perfectly illustrate an important point; every single achievement, mission, technology or communication in space relies on the ground.
As such, the inaugural Strategies in Satellite Ground Segment (SSGS) Conference 2024 evoked valuable insights and discussions. But what are the key themes of focus as the satellite industry ensures the ground segment keeps up with the pace of innovation in the sky?
Convergence
This was a big one from the off, with Henry Sands, Head of Telecom at UK Space Agency, stating early on: “The first and most important element of work at the moment is convergence” and warning that if the satellite sector is to thrive, it needs to be part of a much bigger pool.
5G received the most attention with speakers from GSOA, GSMA, ESA and CGI also covering the topic in a panel with Sands. Meanwhile, Broadband Forum CEO Craig Thomas urged the sector to remember fixed, which will be responsible for “the majority of broadband connections.” As for why this is such an important topic, Isabelle Mauro, Director General of GSOA, summarised it perfectly:
“The user doesn’t care if their service is via satellite or terrestrial. It’s really important that we nail that interoperability.”
2. Collaboration
Mirroring the notion that no single technology can deliver on future connectivity demands, was the idea that no single player can achieve this. There were numerous calls for the industry to come together over the two days, including from Steve Rowland, MilSatCom Solutions Lead at Airbus.
3. Standardisation
The previous two trends make this an inevitable but still important trend to include on the list. Several speakers spoke about standardisation efforts and there is clearly an appetite for them in the industry, along with regulation, as highlighted by Alexis Martin, Chief Consulting Officer at River Advisers.
But there also seemed to be a shared understanding that the industry has a lot of work to do in this area. Dr. Jaime Reed, Vice President, Space Data, Platforms and Applications, at CGI, said standards need to be done more quickly while Airbus’ Rowland suggested the industry needs to talk to some people in the broadband area and find out how to get involved.
4. Cloud
Marius Gilmore, Director (Business Development & Sales) - Space Command and Control Systems, at CGI, best highlighted why the cloud should be a key focus area for the ground segment, saying:
“We are a little bit behind the market in terms of cloud adoption and there are well-founded concerns about transferring gateways into the cloud.”
Gilmore also referred to CGI’s work with Amazon Web Services which aims to address this challenge.
5. Security
Much like the ground segment plays a key role in all things space and satellite, the need for security was ever-present wherever the discussion throughout SSGS went. Dr. Eleni Patouni, Project Officer at European Defence Agency (EDA) went as far as saying it is the most important issue to address while Phil Beecher, President & CEO of the Wi-SUN Alliance and oneM2M’s Andreas Neubacher, of Deutsche Telekom, reflected on the challenges cybersecurity brings in the context of IoT applications on their roundtable discussion.
Picking just five from the vast array of topics covered at SSGS was tough, with AI and virtualisation among several other prominent topics covered by an impressive line-up of speakers. The challenge now is for the satellite industry to come together to take action to deliver what is needed for the ground segment to release the potential the satellite and space industry holds.
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