National Harbor Your Way: In Person or Virtual

by Martin Jarrold

National Harbor, Maryland, September 6, 2021--Welcome to National Harbor, in-person or virtually!  In my previous column for Satellite Markets & Research I included reference to some details of the SATELLITE 2021 (https://gvf.org/event/satellite-2021/) conference program, an event comprising both digital and in-person content and featuring two panel sessions to be hosted by GVF.

The first of these sessions at the Gaylord National Convention Center, entitled Advancements in 5G Satellite Backhaul, takes place on 8 September at 11am EDT (Room: Baltimore 1-2).  Featuring as panelists (current at time of writing) Michele Di Paolo, Director of Business Development, SpaceBridge Inc; Bhanu Durvasula, Vice President, International Division, Hughes; and, Gil Elizov, Head of Products, Gilat Satellite Networks; and, moderated by Lluc Palerm, Principal Analyst, NSR, this session is essentially focused around the progressive digitalization of our world.

This progression will demand vastly improved connectivity to support increasingly bandwidth-hungry consumer and business applications and additionally necessitate that high performance mobile services expand to an unprecedented level.  Around the world, at varying rates of deployment, the reality of 5G is above the horizon, however, the ability of the technology to deliver on the hype of unlimited services available everywhere requires the resolution of a number of complexities and the overcoming of numerous obstacles; and perhaps the most sensitive of these is rollout cost.

Discussion of the role of satellite – with space and ground segment technologies being wholly integrated with the new terrestrial wireless infrastructure that is 5G – seems to have been going on for some considerable time.  Now, with the expected early-2022 publication of Release-17 of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) global standard (i.e., standardization of protocols for mobile telecommunications, including radio access networks, core network and terminals), we will get the concrete definition of satellite’s role in the 5G vision, and realization of the actual fabric of a “network of networks” that, by definition, includes the non-terrestrial (NTN).

Release-17 will bring to fruition fully reciprocated benefits, opening new market opportunities for satellite in one direction whilst bringing to 5G the benefits of seamless global communications in the other direction.  Together, and as one, serving consumer broadband and global commercial business networks, along with maritime and aeronautical, warfighting and peacekeeping, first response and socio-economic development, and numerous other applications in land use, climate monitoring, and smart city evolution, all of which will generate emmense volumes of IIoT data and require the computing power of the AI and ML environment.  In this session, attendees will learn about the various technologies that are enabling faster speeds and more data over satellite for cellular backhaul broadband connectivity for big-data enterprise applications or connecting remote communities.

Additionally, the session will address the question of whether or not the new paradigms of LEO and MEO satellites – the design, manufacture, launch, and operation of which is getting progressively cheaper and easier with virtualized network functions and software defined radio increasing capability and flexibility – and associated massive spectrum reuse will provide effective backhaul transport for future 5G networks, particularly as dense LEO satellite networks can provide better latency performance across continents than that which can be provided by the optical fiber backbone of the internet of 2021.  The session will also ask, “What is the impact of open standards on satellite backhaul?”

The second GVF session, at 2 pm EDT on 8 September in Baltimore 1-2, entitled Reducing Ground Infrastructure Costs in the New Space Supply-Chain, covers (as featured in my earlier column noted above) how NewSpace is challenging established business models whilst creating new supply chains and allowing entrepreneurs to provide services from space in a more affordable way than before. This session features as panelists (current at time of writing) Stuart Daughtridge, Vice President, Kratos; Sergy A. Mummert, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Americas, SES; and, Joakim Espeland, CEO, QuadSAT.  To be moderated by Jai Dialani, Managing Director & Senior Business Developer with Leaf Space U.S., my earlier overview of this session can be read at http://satellitemarkets.com/events/road-national-harbor.

Wherever you are while reading these words… whether in Maryland, or elsewhere in the USA or internationally, at one end of a broadband connection, enjoy the show and stay safe.

Martin Jarrold is Vice-President of International Program Development of GVF. He can be reached at: martin.jarold@gvf.org