Interview with Semir Hassanaly, Head of Cellular Backhaul and Trunking, ST Engineering iDirect

Cellular backhaul is is a growing market segment for satellite companies. To shed light on this key vertical, Satellite Markets and Research spoke with Semir Hassanaly, Head of Cellular Backhaul and Trunking, ST Engineering iDirect. Excerpts of the interview follows:

Semir Hassanaly

With the combined company, ST Engineering iDirect, how do you see your position in the Cellular Backhaul market going forward? 

While there’s more opportunity than ever for growth, service providers and operators require state of the art solutions but also a deep experience in cellular backhaul as well as established relationships with key mobile operators. The combination of our two companies has brought together the strong focus that we both have always had on the customer with our hunger for innovation. Our integration means that ST Engineering iDirect is now a leader in satellite ground infrastructure and solutions and further strengthens its position in the cellular backhaul and trunking markets. 

For cellular backhaul specifically, we see an increased need in the market. We have been aggressive in the market and very successful in acquiring additional market share over the last couple of years. In the future, we expect to see this demand for satellite cellular backhaul growing steadily and we also see very large projects being planned that will use an increasing amount of cellular backhaul capacity. Our experience with 5G projects is also giving us a head start to the upcoming widespread usage of this ecosystem.

ST Engineering iDirect is uniquely positioned to answer demand across the entire cellular backhaul market, from price-sensitive to premium applications with our advanced technology and a strategy for growth that is future proof.  

What differentiates your company’s solutions from your competitors’ in this segment? 

We cover all aspects of the cellular backhaul market and we have an extremely strong and very unique offering. We provide high performance, very efficient, very flexible, very scalable solutions so that we can cater for almost any type of mobile network today. That applies to the hub offering as well as the remote modems. We have developed unique and advanced technology that we have taken to the market and that is proven. 

We help mobile network operators grow their subscribers in remote or unreachable areas, ensure mobile connectivity in emergency situations, and build 5G-compatible networks.

Our efficient, high-performance platform enables mobile network operators and service
 providers to cost-effectively manage a multitude of small, medium, or large networks, including 2G, 3G, 4G/LTE, and 5G and also allow cost-effective media distribution. We enable high QoS and high QoE through patented sophisticated QoS engines and technologies and advanced acceleration and compression technologies while maximizing an operator’s business profitability, encouraging the critical expansion of mobile connectivity around the world.

We have also helped pioneer the cellular backhaul solution and have bolstered its growth with numerous successful commercial deployments. Major mobile operators trust us.

Along with cellular backhaul, our experience and footprint in the broadcast, government, mobility and enterprise markets has given us an edge with cross-vertical and multiservice solutions. This is what we are also leveraging for 5G.

It is this whole combination that differentiates us from our competitors. 

What are the key applications you are targeting for your cellular backhaul solutions and what advantages and benefits do you provide for each application? 

In terms of applications, we are targeting 2G, 3G, 4G, rural, ultra-rural and ultra-ultra rural deployments, 5G, first responder community, private

To read or download a pdf of the full report on Satellite Cellular Backahul sponsored by ST Engineering iDirect  click here.

networks, high-speed trunking and fiber restoration and OTT content distribution. Our Dialog platform and its associated technologies provide a solution that is built for today and tomorrow and supports all of the above applications. 

Dialog is a multiservice VSAT platform that allows operators and service providers to build and adapt their infrastructure and satellite networking according to business or missions at hand. Cellular Operators and Service Providers particularly value the enablement of high QoS and QoE while lowering OPEX through the flexibility, scalability and efficiency that the Dialog platform can offer while paving a way to take advantage of 5G in the future. Dialog can also offer very high speed trunking and fiber restoration capability.

The Dialog platform can be configured to match the size and the satellite network configuration for any customer application. A vast choice is available in terms of satellite bands, transmission speed, power, modulation and amount of forward and return links. The hub scales smoothly and cost effectively from small (few terminals) to large networks (hundreds of thousands of terminals) and from single coverage area to multiple coverage areas on any frequency band. It can serve one or multiple satellites, including high-throughput spot beam configurations. 
In addition, our recently introduced MxDMA MRC technology adds the scalability for ultra-rural and small cell networks where the number of sites is traditionally very high, and it also allows the deployment of multiple services where high scalability is sought along backhaul services.

What are the key trends you see in the cellular backhaul market and how is your company positioned to meet the opportunities and challenges in this market? 

At present, we see the opportunity in an expanded market for satellite connectivity. We are seeing exponential demand for mobile connectivity which is covering every region. Demand is growing from the most urban to the most rural areas. The opportunity for expansion is huge. Mobile networks are poised to become the primary way in which we connect, especially as 5G comes online with new use cases. Mobile network operators will need satellite and its inherent capabilities to help with this tremendous surge in demand, in both rural and urban areas. 

Hybrid networking is presenting new use cases for satellite service providers to help mobile network operators to handle the demands of the connected world. Satellite can help in so many ways, from offloading congested networks to enabling media distribution for OTT services to enabling continuous operations in the event of network disruption and to playing a key role in the evolution of mobile networks and integration into the 5G model. 

Satellite must be complementary to the terrestrial infrastructure. It must blend in and be totally seamless. It’s all about providing the ideal connectivity based on cost and availability requirements, based on latency requirements, so any application should be able to get the connectivity they need based on the characteristics of the application. Satellite will also continue providing connectivity to where it is difficult to reach – remote and geographically challenging areas and also for mobility markets such as maritime and aero. It will still be the key transport solution.

ST Engineering iDirect is ideally positioned to offer a future proof cellular backhaul solution through our multi-service platform that expands market reach, offering the efficiency, performance and service capabilities that our customers need to win today’s opportunities, multiplied by the scale and innovation required to expand into tomorrow’s markets.                   

For more information on ST Engineering iDirect's satellite cellular backhaul solutions go to:  info.idirect.com