Way forward for the satellite ground segment in India

Satcom Industry Association India (SIA-India) today held a conference on satellite ground segment -- the way forward.

Anil Prakash, DG, SIA-India welcomed the audience. The goal has already been set by the Government of India regarding how the satellite

Anil Prakash

industry will grow. ISRO has played its role in developing the space industry. The industry has now matured. There are a number of startups who have also come forward. We are now in league with Japan, China, and Korea. There will also be lot of investment in the country. The ground segment has a big role to play. It will bring new dimensions by investing in developing technology, and partner with international players.

Dr. Subba Rao Pavuluri, President, Satcom Industry Association (India) and CMD, Ananth Technologies Ltd, said space sector is a highly capex industry. Satellite is a less-addressed sector today. That has changed with the policy coming in. The government is very focused today and has facilitated a conducive policy. Satellites like LEOs and MEOs operating on narrow beams, ensure proper operation. India will be all set to take the next leap by exploiting the space capability. There are also components, such as basebands, modems, etc.

Dr. Subba Rao Pavuluri

The share of ground equipment is 48% today. Manufacturing satellites is about 5% globallly. There is rapid growth and interest in ground segment. Several companies have taken a lead. User terminal cost should be reduced to help in coverage. Ground segment systems are a turning point today. It will address civilian and defence needs. Earth observation systems and remote systems are other areas. This will change with massive demand generation in the future. New antenna will be needed to track mega constellations.

Global best practices say capex and opex will come down globally. The market business points need to be explored. The Indian government now aims for a satellite revolution in the country. We need an innovative and pragmatic approach to make all of this happen.

Need for national gateways

Bashir Patel, Senior Regional Advisor, Inmarsat, delivered the industry keynote, in place of Gautam Sharma, MD, Inmarsat India. Development of space technology has driven the ground segment. The ground segment and gateways play an important role. We now need to have national gateways within the country.

Satellite has played an important role in sustaining the Indian economy. There are ATMs, oil and gas, movies, networking, villages empowered by e-governance, etc. There has been an expanding app set, such as enterprises, banking, digital camera, e-learning, along with mobility, community WiFis, 4G/5G backhaul, etc.

There have been major advances in satellite technology. There have been reduced infrastructure costs, increased payload flexibility, and resilient end-to-end ground network. Innovative use of new technologies is drastically reducing the cost per Mbps. There are innovations in all satellite bands such as hybrid C, Ku, L, S bands, and Ka, Q and V bands. There are new constellations and open architectures. There is increased focus on M2M and IoT.

Inmarsat has been offering service in India since inception. BSNL launched services in 2017. It is under L band gateway and services. It is providing GMDSS services and satellite phones for disaster and cyclone management, and remote areas. The GMDSS services are very useful for fleets and other. On Ka band gateway and GX services, Inmarsat and BSNL received licence to provide IFMC (GX) services from 1 Oct 2021. Ground segment is key to providing portfolio of services. Gateway earth stations are key to providing national, regional, and international services to all types of users.

Satellites can power connectivity on land apps. There is communication at remote ares. Satellites can also be used on missions such as emergency services, connecting media in coverage, enabling connected media, etc. Satellite for 5G is also becoming important, especially for extending 5G backhaul to remote areas. They can support new 5G apps such as connected vehicles and autonomous driving. In air and at sea, there are apps such as air traffic management, maritime distress and safety system, etc.

We need to reduce regulatory hurdles to encourage deployment of satellite services. There should be access to sufficient spectrum and protection of existing spectrum allocation, as per ITU RR. There should be light licensing for satellite gateways, blanket licence for user terminals with similar technical characteristics, etc.

Maximum commercial and operational flexibility is required for innovation and investment. Telecom sector has multiple stakeholders in the service delivery chain. We need to reduce costs, and provide incentives. Light licensing and regulatory conditions are needed for gateway investments and innovation. These can be done by providing technology neutrality transparency, smart provision of access to spectrum, minimize local constraints, encourage blanket licensing, exchange and follow best practices, etc.

New trends in satellite

K. Krishna, CTO and VP, Hughes India, delivered his industry keynote. New trends in satellite industry are launch and satellite manufacturing, in-orbit servicing MEV, virtualization of ground segment, IoT and Big Data on satellite, NGSOs, and VSAT broadband.

Launch and satellite manufacturing has bounced back. Driven by HTS, EO and IoT, it is diversified by launch options available. SpaceX disrupted the industry by using re-usable satellites. For in-orbit servicing, the first mission-extending vehicle or MEV was successfully tested and demonstrated by Northrop Grumman. It can be a gamechanger. Next, virtualization of ground networks has seen cloud SPs entering the game. EO and geospatial apps are the early adopters. Ground station-as-a-service is emerging.

NGSOs are also becoming a reality. 3 out of 5 constellations will enter service in 2022. Late entrants are taking advantage of fast-changing technology. Satellite broadband is also prepped for growth. Ground segment growth is going to come from HTS/VHTS being rolled out, LEO systems needing multiple gateways, cloud and virtualized gateway deployments, and other apps, such as EO, IoT, navigation, etc.

Dynamics of gateway deployments for HTS include choice of gateway location, resource optimization, regulatory requirements, etc. There should be spectrum re-use, and low rain attenuation. There should be good Internet backbone, robust infrastructure, and spectrum co-ordination with other services. These can be deployed by teleport service providers, CSPs and other SPs. Regulatory requirements such as size of RFT, lawful interception, and licensing requirements are also there.

He gave suggestions for gateway service providers. We need to treat GSO HTS gateways as infrastructure. SPs can also install their own baseband. Teleport operators can also provide gateway infrastructure. There are LEO HTS gateways, as well, that includes common baseband, besides RFT. License fee and spectrum charges should not be levied on the gateway operator, or should be minimum.

Suneel Kumar Niraniyan, DDG, Satellite, DoT, delivered the special address. The mention new space brings forth new images of satellites. DoT took initiatives and sent its recommendations to TRAI. We are now deliberating the issues.

There is huge demand for satellite-based and terrestrial services. India is a global player today. K band is important for HTS. We need to make efficient use of the spectrum. We are also rationalizing the bank guarantee to 1/5th of the amount. Data speed restrictions were also removed. The addressable market should increase and the sector should grow further. We are also touching upon simplifying clearance procedures so that satellites can be rolled out faster.