From Ka in London to HTS in DC: Satellite Service Provision Game-Changer in Action for Multi End-User Market

by Martin Jarrold

London, UK, January 3, 2013--Following the conclusion of the widely applauded GVF Ka Roundtable Assembly 2012: Satellite Service Provision Game-Changer in Action event, which took place in London on 5th & 6th December 2012 with approximately 100 delegates attending, the satellite industry has now called for a further platform to facilitate extended industry and end-user dialog about high-capacity and high-throughput satellite systems, new ground infrastructures, and advanced networking applications. This further platform will be called the GVF High-Capacity Satellite Roundtable Assembly, and it will take place in Washington DC on 21st & 22nd May 2013.

Chaired by David Hartshorn, Secretary General of GVF, Elisabeth Tweedie, Chief Executive of Definitive Direction, and Stéphane Chenard, Special Executive Advisor with GVF, the London Roundtable Assembly was the first, dedicated, GVF-EMP Conference Partnership-organized gathering of its kind – and the first of a planned global series of Roundtable Assemblies on which the Partnership will continue to collaborate closely with the satellite industry and end-user markets.

The London event was closely supported by O3b Networks, Inmarsat, Hughes, iDirect, Avanti Communications, and Comtech EF Data, with Consulting Partner Definitive Direction. A wide and varied audience representing broadband satellite solution and equipment providers, and from organizations from key end-user markets, heard presentations, and contributed to interactive panel sessions, on how the satellite industry has developed frequency re-use and multiple spot-beam technologies to provision for more spectrum bandwidth, and on how the industry is offering new generations of highly cost-effective services that high-capacity/high-throughput technologies are enabling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Roundtable Assembly format has been designedby the GVF-EMP Partnership to facilitate a multi-faceted dialog with as many perspectives represented as possible based on the bringing together of a diversity of specialists, including end-users from key vertical markets (oil & gas, aerospace, disaster management and development-related NGOs, and satellite newsgathering broadcasters, etc), satellite operators, services and equipment providers, OEMs and hardware manufacturers, researchers and legal/regulatory specialists, together with re-sellers and value added re-sellers (VARs).

The satellite broadband/high-capacity satellite/high-throughput satellite environment was the hot topic of 2012, and this will continue into 2013, and beyond, as more-and-more satellite operators respond to the accelerating demand for frequency spectrum to satisfy the requirements for increasing Internet bandwidth from a wide range of end-users, like those listed above, across the Corporate, Enterprise, Government, Civil Society and consumer sectors.

Already orbited high-throughput systems – using the Ku-band and Ka-band frequency ranges to bring access to the types of communications services and solutions – will continue to be joined in GEO, and will be added to by yet more systems in MEO and LEO. High-throughput satellites employing the satellite Ku-band – and offering up to 45 Gbps of throughput – have, of course, been in service for a number of years, reflecting operators’ responses to the increased levels of demand for more-and-more spectrum, at lower-and-lower cost – evident for a number of years – through development of ever more efficient, powerful, and cost-effective space and ground segments.

Now the satellite operators have further responded by developing and deploying brand-new state-of-the-art systems using Ka-band (and also, it should be remembered, Ku-band) to bring in excess of 1.6 Tbps of aggregate capacity to support fixed (FSS), mobile (MSS), and broadcasting (BSS) services. AND, this figure does not include O3b.

The London conference Opening Keynote was entitled ‘The Time is Right for Ka-band’, and was given by David Burr of O3b Networks. The first day of the program continued with:

  • Ka, High-Throughput, High-Capacity: Technology & Market Context, analyzed by Chris Baugh of Northern Sky Research
  • Satellite Operator & Provider Forum with panelists David Bettinger (iDirect), Nick George (Hughes Network Systems), Chris Georgeson, (Avanti Communications), Steve Petrie (Skylogic/Eutelsat), Jean-Philippe Gillet (Intelsat), and Hesham Khalipha (Arabsat)

Satellite Operator & Provider Forum

  • User Vertical Focus with panelists Nick George (Hughes Network Systems), Simon Barrett (Avanti Communications), Diana Goody (Harris CapRock), Dave Nicoll (Sematron), and Heath Lockett (IHS)

User Verticals Focus

  • OEM Forum with Jonathan Barter (iDirect), Khalid Mahmood (Hughes Network Systems), Louis Dubin (Comtech EF Data), Doron Elinav (Gilat Satellite Networks), Jack Buechler (Advantech Wireless), and Bart Van Poucke (Newtec)

Following the day two Opening Address from Michèle Le Saux, Head of Ground/User Segment Product and Technology Section, Telecommunications and Integrated Applications Directorate, European Space Agency, which set-out the 'The European Space Agency Ka band Roadmap', the program featured:

  • A session on Ka Engineering with Jim Mowat (O3b Networks)
  • Ground Infrastructure Focus with David Bettinger(iDirect), Louis Dubin (Comtech EF Data), Ken Westall(AvL Technologies), Drew Klein(C-COMM Satellite Systems), and David Hartshorn(GVF)
  • Networking Applications Forum with David Burr (O3b Networks), Khalid Mahmood (Hughes Network Systems), and Thomas Bopp (On behalf of the Small Cell Forum)

Networking Applications Forum

  • Regulatory & Licensing Focus with Tony Azzarelli (Spectrum Policy Group, Ofcom), Nina Beebe (Access Partnership), and Carlos Nalda (Squire Sanders)

The full range of organizations registered for the event may be viewed on the Roundtable Assembly homepage at www.uk-emp.co.uk/future-events-2012-13/ka-roundtable,and the program of presentation content is available for download in PDF format from www.uk-emp.co.uk/future-events-2012-13/ka-roundtable/program.

More information on GVF-EMP Partnership programs is available at www.uk-emp.co.uk/future-events-2012-13.

The GVF High-Capacity Satellite Roundtable Assembly, taking place in Washington DC in May 2013 is a very exciting prospect. Following the original London event by just over five months, there will have been many new developments on the high-capacity/high-throughput front, and there will be many more answers to some of the key questions, and some more-developed responses to some of the concerns, regarding the high-throughput satellite environment, for example: How successfully have rain-fade issues been addressed, and how this does this impact upon service level agreements? Is there any risk of bandwidth oversupply? Contrarily, what happens if spot-beams get full-up? What might be the costs of migrating pre-existing customers over to high-throughput systems? There are, of course, still many more questions. The Roundtable Assembly in Washington will provide some more key answers.

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  Martin Jarrold is Chief of International Program Development of the GVF.  He can be reached at: martin.jarrold@gvf.org