India’s satellite communications (satcom) space is undergoing significant advancements, from successful satellite launches to collaborative efforts and the development of new technologies. This growth is accompanied by the rapid expansion of terrestrial technologies such as 5G, which is expected to drive the demand for satcom capacity in the coming years. While 5G offers high speed wireless connectivity with low latency, it has certain limitations that make it less suitable for long distance communications and data transfers. In this context, the integration of satcom and 5G technologies emerges as the optimal approach for establishing a future-ready connected ecosystem.
Key limitations of 5G
5G networks have several limitations that underscore the need for complementary technologies like satcom to establish a robust communication channel. These include:
- Limited coverage: 5G networks are still in the early stages of deployment, and their coverage is limited to urban and suburban areas. This means that in remote or rural areas, 5G signals may be weak or non-existent, posing challenges for operations that rely solely on 5G.
- Vulnerability to interference: 5G networks operate on higher frequencies than previous generations of wireless technology, which makes them more susceptible to interference from physical obstacles, such as buildings or trees, as well as from intentional jamming or cyberattacks.
- Limited range: 5G networks have a shorter range than previous generations of wireless technology, making it more challenging to maintain a reliable connection over long distances, particularly in outdoor environments.
- Easy detection: Due to their higher frequency, 5G signals are easier to detect and intercept than satellite signals, making them more vulnerable to interception by adversaries or malicious actors. This is particularly concerning for military operations that require secure and confidential communication.
Complementary benefits of satcom
Satcom can complement 5G services in numerous ways. For instance, terrestrial backhaul solutions for connecting cell sites across wide geographic regions come with high costs and low returns on investment, along with time delays. In contrast, cellular backhaul over satellite enables mobile network operators to provide consistent services to customers. It expands their coverage to larger areas that were previously considered economically unviable.
Further, billions of monitoring systems using internet of things (IoT) will be connected to 5G. In many instances, these devices will be connected via satellites through bandwidth and power-efficient terminals, with an optimised air interface.
Moreover, satcom plays a major role in content caching near the edge, bringing content closer to the user. The natural capability of satellites to multicast data over a wide area can be integrated into the content delivery network. With efficient satellite multicast delivery, this will help enhance the users’ quality of experience, reduce backhaul traffic load, and provide immediate and on-demand content access.
Meanwhile, satcom supports resilient 5G networks to address issues of overload or congestion. During instances of terrestrial congestion and network stress, or when the user is out of range of the terrestrial radio link, traffic seamlessly flows over the satellite link until the terrestrial connections are restored. Thus, satellite capacity can be shared across multiple sites at a low cost per site, ensuring high availability for the end user.
Integrating satcom and 5G
Satcom and 5G can work together by providing complementary capabilities that enable reliable, secure and high-speed communications. Satcom can enable communication over long distances, including beyond line of sight, while 5G can provide communication over shorter distances within line of sight. Integrating these two networks can ensure seamless communication across different distances, enabling communication from remote or hostile areas to urban or suburban areas.
Further, satcom can provide a redundant communication path that is independent of terrestrial communication infrastructure, while 5G can provide a reliable communication path over terrestrial infrastructure. The integration of these two networks ensures redundancy and resilience in the face of communication disruptions, ensuring continuous communication in adverse conditions.
Moreover, 5G can provide high speed, low-latency communication that is ideal for high-bandwidth applications such as video streaming, real-time situational awareness and data-intensive applications. In contrast, satcom can provide lower speed communication but with higher bandwidth, and is less susceptible to latency, which is ideal for communication in remote or rural areas. The integration of these two networks can provide a balanced communication system that can handle a variety of communication requirements across different environments.
In terms of security, satcom can provide secure communication over encrypted satellite links that are less susceptible to electronic jamming and interception, while 5G can provide secure communication over encrypted wireless links that are more susceptible to interception. Together, these two networks can provide a more secure communication system that can handle different security requirements across different environments.
Meanwhile, a hybrid network combines multiple communication technologies to provide a robust and reliable network that can handle diverse communication requirements. Satcom and 5G can work together in a hybrid network to provide high speed, low-latency connectivity that can be used for different applications such as video streaming, command and control, and situational awareness. By combining the global reach of satcom with the capabilities of 5G, hybrid networks can deliver seamless connectivity across different geographies and terrain.
Network integration involves the integration of different communication systems to create a unified network that can support different communication needs. In this regard, satcom and 5G can be integrated to create a network that provides seamless connectivity across different communication technologies, including cellular, Wi-Fi and satellite. This integrated network can be used for various applications, such as remote sensing, unmanned vehicles and augmented reality.
Moreover, multi-domain operations involve the coordination of different domains such as land, air, sea, space and cyber. In this regard, satcom and 5G can work together to support multi-domain operations by providing seamless connectivity across different domains. Satcom can be used for long-range communication, while 5G can be used for short-range communication, creating a network that can support multi-domain operations. This can be especially useful for scenarios such as disaster relief, where communication infrastructure may be damaged or destroyed. Overall, the integration of satcom and 5G can provide a more robust, flexible and adaptable communication system for a variety of environments and applications.
Satcom in the 3GPP standards
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specifications on satellite connectivity have opened up exciting opportunities for terrestrial communication service providers to cooperate with satellite operators for deriving mutual benefits from creating a global non-terrestrial network (NTN) ecosystem. By enabling connectivity between terrestrial systems and satellite systems on the same mobile platform, the NTN ecosystem will deliver significant value to individuals and organisations globally by offering truly global mobile coverage.
Integration with satellite networking technologies that can provide coverage in areas that terrestrial networks cannot reach would help deliver resilient services to people and businesses currently unserved in both developed and developing parts of the world, bringing significant social and economic benefits.
Conclusion
With the rapid and widespread deployment of 5G networks globally, satcom integration advancements are keeping pace. Several new NTNs are being proposed and launched, which can be integrated with 5G. Net, net, the integration of 5G and satcom will help realise the high transmission speeds, lower latency and wider connectivity promised by 5G networks. 5G will offer new enterprise use cases and business models, while NTNs will provide additional coverage capabilities to implement and extend these use cases to new areas.
Satcom can complement 5G and increase its value by addressing coverage challenges and complex use cases that cannot be delivered using terrestrial infrastructure alone. It will also enable the implementation of virtual networks (network slicing) and provide more adjusted connectivity as per user requirements. Importantly, this integration is both technically possible and economically feasible due to the evolution of the underlying technology of satellites, as well as the business models of satellite companies, such as satellite-as-a-service. The integration of the two technologies recognises the potential of private satellite constellations to not only provide internet connectivity to remote areas, but also fulfil future networking service requirements.
