#SpaceWatchGL Interviews – ST Engineering iDirect’s Intuition supporting the scalability and flexibility necessary for modern satellite systems

The International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) 2024, concluded on 16 September 2024. During this time, we had the opportunity to interview …
#SpaceWatchGL Interviews – ST Engineering iDirect’s Intuition supporting the scalability and flexibility necessary for modern satellite systems
IBC 2024 Conference. Credit Omkar Nikam

The International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) 2024, concluded on 16 September 2024. During this time, we had the opportunity to interview Jo De Loor, VP of Market Development and Strategy, at ST Engineering iDirect. The interview was focused on the company’s new solution called Intuition, which aims to improve the speed, scale, cost and flexibility of service delivery amidst the satellite industry’s ongoing transformation to empower a connected tomorrow.

Omkar NIKAM (ON): Can you tell us what is ST Engineering iDirect’s Intuition platform and how it supports the scalability and flexibility needed for VHTS deployments?

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Jo DE LOOR (JDL): ST Engineering iDirect’s Intuition platform is an advanced satellite network ground system built on a virtualized, cloud-native, multi-orbital architecture. This technology is critical for addressing the challenges in today’s satellite industry, particularly in managing the increasing scale and complexity of satellite operations. With the rise of high-throughput and software-defined satellites, operators and service providers are facing new challenges. The ability to deliver higher scale, increased capacity, and support for new frequency bands such as Ka, Ku, and V-band gateways is essential to meet the growing market demands.

Furthermore, Intuition provides the scalability and flexibility needed, while optimizing both waveform performance and Quality of Service (QoS). It supports DVBS and other advanced QoS features to ensure networks can meet the demands of today and tomorrow, delivering the necessary scale, performance, and throughput. This capability is critical for serving the most demanding customers and preparing for the satellite networks of the future, which will likely involve managing large satellite fleets.

Another important aspect of Intuition platform is the orchestration of resources and services across the satellite network. Intuition integrates both space and ground operations, crucial in an era of software-defined satellites and fully digitized payloads. This end-to-end orchestration brings significant value to customers by enabling better service delivery and more efficient response to market demands. Ensuring that space and ground operations are fully aligned, even in multi-orbit environments, is essential for optimizing the overall performance of satellite networks.

ON: How does the cloud-native, virtualized architecture of Intuition enhance the speed of satellite network deployment, particularly in the context of VHTS?

JDL: Intuition’s cloud-native, virtualized architecture is essential for providing the scalability and flexibility required in today’s satellite industry. Traditionally, the design of a satellite dictated the structure of its ground segment, but with the advent of software-defined satellites, there is now unprecedented flexibility and scalability. These satellites can support tens, hundreds, or even thousands of beams, making virtualization a critical component for managing this scale and flexibility.

With virtualization, services can be configured on-demand without the need for complex hardware adjustments across different networks. Virtualization can be deployed on private clouds, public clouds through cloud service providers, or in hybrid cloud environments that combine both. This hybrid approach is becoming increasingly important for scaling services efficiently while ensuring a faster time-to-market.

ON: What are the key challenges in integrating VHTS with multi-orbit networks, and how does Intuition address these challenges?

JDL: Integrating Geostationar Orbit (GEO) and other orbital networks presents several challenges, particularly in managing complex handovers between satellites, orbits, and beams. The key questions are how to do this efficiently and how to ensure consistent quality of service in such a dynamic environment. This is precisely what Intuition addresses; Primarily through advanced orchestration it enables seamless resource allocation across orbits, satellites, and beams.

Intuition further simplifies the network by abstracting its complexity, allowing services to run efficiently with optimal throughput. It handles all handovers and beam-switching processes behind the scenes. The primary goal is to provide a consistent service and maintain service level agreements (SLAs) for the end user. What the end user values is a smooth, uninterrupted experience – without having to deal with the intricacies of the network’s inner workings.

ON: How do Intuition’s advanced orchestration capabilities optimize bandwidth management and beam switching in VHTS environments?

JDL: Advanced orchestration capabilities are crucial, especially as we move towards a more dynamic satellite environment where resources must be managed in real time. This dynamic management ecosystem ensures that you can efficiently allocate bandwidth and services to meet shifting demands, allowing customers to maximize both revenue and the necessary addressable market.

On the other hand, Orchestration plays a key role in optimizing resource allocation, ensuring beam switching, beam management, and global network operations are handled smoothly and efficiently. Additionally, maintaining high QoS standards is essential for the future of satellite networks. These elements will be further critical in delivering the performance and scalability needed to support next-generation satellite services.

ON: Can you discuss the role of 5G and multi-access edge computing (MEC) within the Intuition platform for improving VHTS service delivery?

JDL: This is where Intuition’s flexibility and cloud-native architecture become essential, as they enable seamless integration with 5G technologies and multi-access edge computing (MEC). Efficiently integrating these technologies opens the door to offering new services and applications while enhancing the user experience by performing more tasks at the network edge. Given that satellites often operate in underserved and remote areas, leveraging edge computing capabilities makes perfect sense. By processing data closer to the user, you can optimize performance and deliver more responsive services in these challenging environments.

ON: How does Intuition’s interoperability with global communications networks enable seamless integration with new constellations and VHTS?

JDL: A key priority for the future of our industry is advancing towards greater interoperability. How do we achieve this? By evolving into an open, standardized ecosystem that allows seamless integration with new constellations, satellite systems, and software-defined satellites. This is where advanced orchestration and global bandwidth management play a critical role, enabling smooth integration across diverse infrastructures.

Service providers, especially the ones facing increasingly complex environments, need efficient ways to manage their infrastructure. Their main concern is maintaining consistent QoS across multiple orbits and satellites. Our technology, such as global bandwidth management, simplifies network complexity while ensuring reliable QoS for end users. This is essential to meeting the growing demands of a multi-orbit, multi-satellite environment.

ON: Can you elaborate on the importance of open standards, such as 3GPP and MEF, in the Intuition platform, and how they benefit VHTS operators?

JDL: We are working to integrate 3GPP standardization, which is currently under development, into our platform. Similarly, we are incorporating the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) standards, the de facto standard for core networks. Why is this important? Using these standards will simplify the integration of satellite services into the broader telecommunications ecosystem.

Historically, satellite networks relied on proprietary technology interfaces, making integration with terrestrial networks more complex. By adopting these evolving standards, we can streamline this process. This also benefits mobile network operators, IT, and enterprise environments by enabling easier integration. Moving forward, we strongly advocate for open standards like 5G, which we believe represent the future of satellite communications.

ON: In terms of cost-efficiency, how do Intuition’s flexible go-to-market models help operators maximize the return on investment from VHTS?

JDL: As satellites become more powerful, complex, and scalable, the networks they support are also growing in complexity. A key challenge is helping satellite operators and service providers identify the right business models across the value chain. In the past, satellite operators typically dealt directly with end users, or smaller operators would purchase their own hubs and run them on satellite capacity. However, there are now more flexible options available.

This can be compared to the mobile industry, where Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) lease network capacity. We see a similar trend emerging in the satellite space. While we’ve done this before, the larger and more complex systems we now work with offer greater flexibility within the value chain to better serve customers. Multiple players can collaborate to meet the needs of the end user, such as a network operator or a virtual network operator who purchases a bandwidth pool through our global bandwidth management system. They can then package and resell services to others. This flexibility in go-to-market strategies, particularly with virtualized and software-defined satellites, is a significant advantage.

ON: What future enhancements do you envision for the intuition platform to further support the evolution of VDS and multi-orbit satellite operations?

JDL: Today, there is a strong focus on virtualization and cloud integration. However, we are also seeing growing momentum in enhancing automation, particularly in orchestration capabilities. This includes the potential use of artificial intelligence to generate valuable data and drive more efficient operations for complex networks at scale.

Additionally, there are ongoing efforts toward further standardization, particularly in integrating satellite networks with the 5G core on HPE. Over time, as standardization evolves into a full 5G NCCN environment, we will see a truly open standard that is widely adopted. This is the direction we see the industry moving toward in the future.

The Interview has been edited for content

Jo De Loor is VP Market Development and Strategy at ST Engineering iDirect, where he is responsible for the team heading the company’s vertical markets. He previously held a similar position of VP Market Development at Newtec, where Jo was also responsible for the market development for HTS and constellations. Prior to his position as VP Market Development, Jo was Product Manager and in this role he was responsible for the product definition and market launch of Newtec Dialog®. Jo has over 20 years of experience in the satcom industry. He began his career at Newtec in 1996. In 2005, he became systems architect for Newtec’s DVB-RCS system and further evolved to product manager and later Product Line Director of the Sat3Play Broadband Platform. Jo holds a Bachelor’s degree in electronics from HTISA-Gent, Belgium.

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