Satcom leaders at the Department of Defense Chief Information Officer (DoD CIO) are pushing to modernize user terminals and teleports, leaning into software-defined architectures to make use of military, commercial and allied satcom networks.
“In satcom, I think we need to have that 3GPP moment,” said Mike Dean, director of Command, Control and Communications (C3) Infrastructure at DoD CIO, referring to the comprehensive global standards that made it possible for mobile devices to roam seamlessly across cellular networks.
“I think we need to do the same thing with satcom terminals,” Dean said Tuesday at MILSATCOM USA. “They’ve got to be light, they’ve got to be inexpensive, they’ve got to be software-defined, so we can put the different waveforms and service-provided networks in them.”
Dean’s office is responsible for the digital transformation of legacy C3 capabilities, which includes modernizing ground infrastructure and supporting satcom user terminal upgrades across the military branches.
While the space segment has undergone significant modernization, there has been a tendency to underestimate the importance of the ground segment, exemplified by the lag in user equipment for the narrowband Mobile User Objective System (MUOS). Dean described user terminals as “the tail that wags the dog,” noting it can currently take 7 to 15 years to integrate new terminals into ships, submarines or aircraft “until we get to software defined.”
Paul Van Slett, the SATCOM division chief at DoD CIO, reiterated the point, saying a satellite designed for satcom “that is not interoperable with the ground segment or user terminal “is effectively an orbiting paperweight.”
Speaking at MILSATCOM USA, Van Slett elaborated the need for interoperability, calling for a shift away from hardware toward software, or virtualization, which is common in the mobile industry and beginning to be used in commercial satcom. Virtualization employs software-based representations of physical computing resources, like routers, switches, modems, networks, servers and even waveforms.
“Part of the modernization effort will be to reduce the amount of bespoke ‘pizza boxes’ that exist in DoD [satcom facilities] and field standardized servers that can be upgraded as necessary,” said Van Slett, referring to vendor-specific hardware. “Software upgrades are a lot faster than doing all the wiring and cabling and interoperability testing of new hardware when that new hardware wasn’t necessary to begin with, when that capability can be virtualized.”
The DoD CIO has joined several industry consortia working to standardize and virtualize core elements of the ground segment. These include the Digital Intermediate Frequency Interoperability (DIFI) Consortium and the Waveform Architecture for Virtualized Ecosystems (WAVE) Consortium. WAVE is currently working to develop a standard for waveform virtualization so satellite modems can be software-based, replacing bespoke hardware and improving resiliency by diversifying data pathways.
“This allows the ability for waveforms, if necessary, to be routed to alternate facilities to keep missions up, to allow that capability to be extended across long distances, or to provide resiliency,” Van Slett explained.
Virtualization would also allow the military to upgrade waveforms as new ones are developed without buying new equipment, he continued. “Now that can be done through a simple software upgrade on standardized servers, just like routing and switching virtualization.”
The potential advantages of satcom virtualization have reached policymaking circles. Earlier this week, the DoD CIO issued a response to Congress after being asked what is being done to virtualize waveforms, Van Slett told sister publication Via Satellite.
The DoD CIO will continue outlining parameters for the future ground segment. Before the end of the year, they are expected to release the Modernized Teleport System (MTS) capability development document. The document will define needed improvements in developing a resilient, multi-band, multi-orbit, multi-path satcom enterprise.
This story was first published by Via Satellite