Israel-based satellite communications specialist Gilat Satellite Networks says it has received a new order worth more than $6 million for its Wavestream Gateway Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPAs) to support Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations. Deliveries are expected over the next 12 months.

That’s good news for Gilat and adds to its roster of recent contract successes. But Gilat’s experience reflects that the LEO ecosystem is shifting from launch cadence to ground-segment readiness. And as the most recent Polaris Innovation Journal notes, LEO networks are becoming foundational to next-generation resilient communications and navigation architectures. That shift is driving operators to expand gateway capacity at pace.

Indeed, the progress in handling LEO connectivity has also to reflect new technologies in Space, not least laser-based (optical) transmissions. Lasere/optic links are about 1.5-times faster than traditional optical fibre links.

The latest Polaris Innovation Journal says: “Satellite communication constellations are increasingly attracting the interest of commercial, institutional and military stakeholders needing high-speed, low-latency and globally available cyber-secure connectivity. Optical communications for secure and resilient, high-speed links between satellites and with ground stations are key elements that enable the evolution of new satellite communications constellations.”

Satellite optical communications networks can leverage on:

• Space-to-Space and Space-to-ground high-data rate connections.

• Multiple orbits to support low latency, high availability scenarios and to adapt to the different user requests.

• Advanced routing protocols and switching capabilities to enable traffic engineering of user data, adapting to multiple user requests (in terms of type of connectivity and data rate) and network topology dynamicity.

• Optimised satellite ground segment network, to maximise availability of Space-ground links and to minimise infrastructural costs.

Existing and planned constellations are still relying on conventional radio frequency links between Space and ground to achieve high service availability. But that is changing. The availability of high-speed optical links between satellite and user terminals/ground stations are interesting features that increase the overall system capacity and encourage adoption of laser/optical technology.

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Categories: Blogs, Inside Satellite, Satellite

Tags: Gilat, Israel, polaris