Speaking from the Space Comm Expo Europe event in London, Kevin French, the organiser of the conference dedicated exclusively to the satellite ground segment, has warned that the global success of data centres is at risk if barriers to their co-location with satellite ground stations are not removed.

The advantages to placing a satellite ground station next to a data centre are already clear. For example, keeping the antenna systems physically close to compute and storage functions eliminates long terrestrial backhaul links and helps to reduce latency. Both the data centre and ground station also benefit from cost-savings and can become scalable digital hubs as capacity can be quickly added to meet increased demand. However, securing the necessary planning permissions, obtaining sufficient levels of funding, obtaining the necessary spectrum licences in already crowded frequency bands and event issues relating to data sovereignty can all hold up the process of co-location.

“Satellite ground systems are increasingly being co-located with data centres, and it’s not a coincidence – it’s a structural shift. As demand for high capacity, low latency services accelerate, bringing ground infrastructure closer to compute isn’t just efficient, it’s transformative,” said the Strategies in Satellite Ground Segment (SSGS) conference and exhibition director French. “Co-location enables virtualised architectures, cloud native workflows, and far more resilient end to end operations. It ensures that satellite data isn’t just collected, but processed, stored and delivered with the speed and reliability that modern networks now require.”

While there are successful co-location projects in operation – such as the recent approval given to Amazon’s Project Kuiper to operate a satellite earth station gateway at the National Space Centre Ltd (NSC) in Cork, Ireland – there are fears that the speed of approvals in some jurisdictions could lag behind demand and create a two-tier system.

The issue of co-location, data centres, cloud and edge computing will be a major topic of discussion at the SSGS conference being held at the Park Plaza Hotel in London later this year.

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Tags: Ireland, London, satellite, Space