Flexibility and versatility are currently desirable characteristics of space systems. Customer demands are changing unceasingly and this fact implies new requirements for satellites and satellite communication systems. The current trend is repurposable satellites, considering their long life cycles. And here is where software can play a relevant role.
Softwarisation is not a new concept in the telecommunications environment. We can identify previously deployed paradigms, such as software-defined radio (SDR), where software has dramatically increased radiofrequency systems versatility with regard to the former approaches, where expensive hardware and physical circuits imposed unavoidable constraints to the work frequencies.
Softwarisation has also arrived to communication networks. Thus, software-defined networks (SDNs) are one of the main innovations of 5G. SDNs differentiate between the data plane and the control plane, getting a great flexibility for data routing and transport. This paradigm is often explained jointly with the network function virtualisation (NFV). Virtualisation is at the end of the day a mode of softwarisation.
So, how can we take advantage of these previous activities for the satellite domain? New concepts arise, like the software-defined satellite (SDS). Moving satellite features to software presents the key added value of being able to reconfigure the satellite capabilities instead of having a statically configured satellite for its complete operational life. And this flexibility is especially important for the challenging immediate future, when new capabilities are being deployed, such as steerable antennas and beams, multi-spot, power flexibility, new orbits and larger throughputs. A key element to manage these flexible payloads is the DTP (Digital Transparent Processor), in charge of the beam forming, connectivity and channelisation.
The complexity of this new satellite generation, involving thousands of beams and flexible resource allocation to satisfy customer demands, requires software solutions for both the on-board components and the ground segment systems managing the payload. GMV is the world’s foremost independent supplier of ground control systems for commercial telecommunications satellite operators. ATRIA is facing this complexity with another innovative technology: Artificial Intelligence (AI). New flexible digital payloads and ground segment operations may be in the mid-term one more of the many applications of AI to the space industry.
