The satellite industry is entering a period of rapid transformation, and operators across every orbital regime are reassessing their ground architectures to keep pace with rising data demands, new market pressures and the shift toward software‑driven operations.
Read our top four takeaways from our conversation with Grace Khanuja, management and strategy consultant manager at Novaspace, or listen to the full episode.
Takeaway 1: EO is leading the way in virtual ground adoption.
Earth observation is inherently very data-centric, which has oriented the market toward “software-heavy operations,” according to Khanuja.
In contrast, the satcom market’s transition to virtualized systems is underway but likely to be more gradual because its foundations have been more hardware-intensive, she said. However, factors such as the rise of mega-constellations and pricing disruptions are heightening the business case for virtual ground in satcom, Khanuja said.
“EO and remote sensing markets were hit by a large volume of data and complex networks, and they had to keep pace with it from a ground perspective as well. And that’s where software ground virtualization comes in, where you move to a more elastic software-centric system and you can move away from traditional CapEx-heavy hardware systems and you can pace up faster,” Khanuja said. “You can beef up your systems faster. You can provide capacity more flexibly as the demand grows, so there’s that adaptability concept that satcom can also take a learning from.”
Earth observation operators using virtualized systems recorded double-digit cost reductions, saving more than 50% in some scenarios, Khanuja said, referencing data from a Novaspace case study.
“It’s not just a cost efficiency story. It’s a tech upgrade story as well. It’s how quickly you monetize your infrastructure,” Khanuja said. “These are some learnings that satcom can take from Earth observation as well.”
Takeaway 2: Virtual ground can act as a ‘revenue acceleration lever.’
One of the most immediate and apparent benefits to operators of virtual ground is a faster time to market, Khanuja said. After the initial installation phase, a virtual ground system only takes about a day to be fully implemented, versus closer to a week for a traditional hardware system, according to Khanuja.
Operators also save time on upgrades and system enhancements with virtual ground because software updates can take just minutes compared with hours for hardware upgrades, she said.
“That differential is what creates an opportunity to capture the revenues with the faster deployment, capturing more customers. Think of it in a competitive lens. If there is an operator that utilizes virtual ground versus an operator that doesn’t, the operator that utilizes a virtual ground or a software-based solution can reach the market much quicker, capture more revenue, capture more customers and have an edge over its competitors as well,” Khanuja said. “It’s not just an operational lever; it’s also more like a revenue acceleration lever as well.”
Takeaway 3: Virtual ground enables operators to do more with less.
Starlink has disrupted the old model of relying solely on GEO systems. Now, competitors are exploring GEO, MEO and LEO options and trying to design resilient, flexible architectures of their own, said Khanuja.
The challenge is that these orbital layers function very differently, so operators cannot treat them the same or expect them to perform identically, said Khanuja. Coordinating them requires a solid understanding of how each orbit behaves, she said.
“There is a need for a unified platform, and I think a virtualized ground system can manage the resources across orbits really well in a dynamic way,” Khanuja said.
A virtualized ground system can manage resources across all orbits, shifting capacity and switching between them as needed, said Khanuja. Virtualization also supports shared infrastructure, meaning operators don’t need separate hardware for each orbit, she said.
“There can be a unified platform which can coordinate between orbits, and it reduces your cost and it increases your efficiency to capture the demand across the orbits,” she said.
Virtual ground also enables operators to lease access to existing ground infrastructure rather than owning and operating their own physical infrastructure, said Khanuja.
“Ground segment as a service, or GSaaS, is an interesting concept. It’s essentially bringing cloud economics to the satellite ground system,” Khanuja said. “That way they don’t have to own it, don’t have to maintain it. It’s just use-case based.”
The ability for operators to pay as they go rather than invest high upfront costs in implementing their own ground infrastructure lowers the barrier of entry into the market, Khanuja said.
“More players can enter the market - it’s essentially an extension of virtualization and that’s why it’s attractive for most of the players,” she said.
Takeaway 4: Software-defined systems will give operators an edge in 5G NTN.
The 5G NTN market represents an estimated $30 billion opportunity for the satellite industry by the end of the decade, and operators with software-defined ground systems will have a competitive edge in this lucrative market, said Khanuja.
“It’s important to understand what 5G NTN is as well. It’s not just satellite networks coexisting with telecom networks, it’s also satellite networks talking to telecom networks, and that’s where the opportunity lies for virtualized software solutions,” Khanuja said.
Updating the physical configurations of traditional hardware systems requires time and incurs costs, whereas a virtualized system allows for much simpler and less expensive software upgrades and makes it easier to bring a system up to 3GPP NTN standards, she said.
“We can create standards that match with the 3GPP NTN standards and enable a seamless transition between terrestrial and non-terrestrial, which is the core for 5G NTN as well,” she said.
The agility of a virtualized ground system and the quicker time-to-market provide an advantage in customer acquisition for the emerging market and allows the operator to stay up to date with standards updates as they come in, Khanuja said.
“Overall, it enables the operators to be able to capture more users, to be updated commercially in terms of standards and capture the wave of this $30 billion 5G NTN market as well.”
For more, listen to the full episode.
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