The Road to
Interoperability

This Year’s DIFI PlugFest Comes with a Reality Check for Industry Tech

6/16/2026

As DIFI members begin to kick the tires on the new, more resilient version 1.3 of the standard, we’ll be especially focused on real-world conditions with typical traffic hurdles. Ultimately, it makes our takeaways more functional. That’s why DIFI PlugFest USA 2026 is adding a second test system, replicating a “live” end-to-end network complete with Layer 2 switching and satellite link emulation via host Keysight’s PROPSIM channel emulators.

That’s in addition to the main interoperability setup from PlugFest Europe25, where it was originally used to advance multi-vendor compatibility across the satellite ground segment. Together these systems will offer members and industry engineers our most immersive, hands-on environment yet in which to collaborate and test the interoperability of digital intermediate frequency (IF) technologies using version 1.2.1 or 1.3 of DIFI this time around.

Released in July 2025, version 1.3 significantly improves the process of establishing a link between two devices, and we’re hearing from multiple companies that want to demonstrate compatible capabilities or learn more about implementation efforts. This will be their first chance.

We’ll also be leveraging our newly ratified DIFI certification test procedures and evaluating interoperability profiles and test documents for the next phase. It’s no secret that military services like the Army want third-party certification, and this is the next step on the path to establishing a third-party test house.

Help shape the agenda by submitting your technologies for testing and discussion topics before the event at Keysight’s facilities in Santa Clara, California from Oct. 5-8.

We’re expecting record participation from international companies interested in contributing to our open, transparent process of troubleshooting bugs and different interpretations of the specification to make DIFI more robust. PlugFest also offers them greater exposure and confidence in their latest solutions.

One week later, the DIFI Consortium will reconvene in Rockville, Maryland for a full-day Digital Transformation of Satcom workshop as part of MILCOM 2026. We’ll focus on the use of digitization and virtualization in next-generation satcom systems and share the fresh results from PlugFest.

The satellite industry is increasingly connected as satcom networks evolve into multi-orbit, multi-band, hybrid architectures reliant on digital transformation to scale and interoperate for operational flexibility. That also means technologies are changing faster than ever, with these two events helping companies remain at the forefront.

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Software-based Systems are Driving Standards. And Vice Versa.

5/19/2026

It’s been wonderful to see the pace of acceptance of DIFI as the growing standard for satellite ground equipment. The driving factors are many, including the business opportunities created by interoperability and escape from proprietary vendor lock-in. That said, perhaps the greatest accelerator has been the widespread move toward ground segment virtualization.

According to a recent white paper from prominent research firm Novaspace entitled The Business Case for Virtual Ground: Quantifying the ROI Advantage, “Virtualization is seen as a key factor contributing to the projected $98 billion cumulative spending on the ground segment through 2034 (source: 2025 Novaspace Ground Segment Market Report),” adding “Virtualization is also critical to taking advantage of the largest revenue opportunities in the industry including 5G NTN to connect to terrestrial networks, software-defined satellites to deliver service on demand and multi-orbit constellations to provide service flexibility.”

Another recent white paper from research firm Analysys Mason, entitled “Meeting the Challenge of Starlink and the Mega-Constellations with Software Ground,” echoed the sentiment: “A fully virtualised, orchestrated ground segment will deliver high asset utilisation in multi-orbit, multi-vendor networks whilst maintaining a high quality of service.” The report adds, “An orchestrated, virtualised approach will be best for adopting interoperable networking standards such as DIFI, MEF Carrier Ethernet, TM Forum Open APIs and of course 5G NTN (non-terrestrial networks).”

Analysys Mason makes the additional point that “Virtual architecture provides the best route to supporting enhanced, interoperable services with 5G participation... Virtualized ground infrastructure is the ideal approach for satellite players to enter the 5G ecosystem and prepare for AI-native 6G.”

In the evolution to software-defined networks, DIFI and other standards become essential for a world that increasingly employs cloud-enabled, cloud-based, mobile and similarly distributed architectures, especially where speed to mission and resilience are critical needs, such as in defense applications. As Novaspace notes, “By standardizing on mainstream IT infrastructure, virtualized ground can draw on diverse supply chains, technological progress and third-party applications in the much larger IT and telecom partner ecosystem.”

The Novaspace paper includes models that quantify the ROI of virtual ground using generic, off-the-shelf platforms for running virtualized components such as modems and without the need for hardware accelerators. Some of their numbers are below, and they are striking. The key is escaping proprietary hardware in favor of industry standards for network elements.

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Certifiable

4/21/2026

Some important news for organizations manufacturing, using or contemplating DIFI standard-based equipment: The certification program for the DIFI 1.1 specification has been approved by the working group and is now going through board approval.

Why is this so important? Because it will further enable recognizable confidence that the equipment will perform according to standard. It will also enable third-party certifications, thus creating even wider confidence by supporting independent test houses.

While attending the 41st Space Symposium earlier this month it was compelling to see so many companies promoting virtual ground equipment. While employing the DIFI standard is markedly beneficial for both software and hardware components, it’s in the virtualized and cloud environments where the interoperability benefits of digital IF and DIFI really shine.

And for the folks I saw exhibiting at the Symposium (the largest industry event focused on defense and intelligence applications) it will help them reply to the continuing uptick in defense-related RFPs we’ve seen specifying DIFI compliance.

Incidentally, for future DIFI standard releases, certification will be defined against feature sets, such as flow control, rather than release version numbers. This will make it easier to specify, use and manage compliance. Instead of just asking for the latest release, which might have features or capabilities not required for a given use case, you will be able to specify the exact features needed.

Details are coming, and you can stay current by following us on LinkedIn.

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Making Gateways More Resilient

3/24/2026

Recently an SES gateway in Israel was hit by a missile, targeted as part of the war in Iran. According to Space News, SES said “a small portion of the geostationary antenna field was damaged, adding that no injuries were reported and the impact did not affect the main facility at Emek Ha’ela.”

While I’m not privy to global intelligence on these things, this is the first time I can remember hearing about a commercial ground station being targeted physically, especially by missiles.

In fact, it turns the standard attack narrative on its head just a bit. Usually, we think about the ground segment being targeted by cyber and jamming threats, while missiles have been more of a growing concern as kinetic attacks on satellites in the space segment.

Either way, one point is clear: threats against satellite connectivity are growing as our reliance on those satellites deepens. Which is why both defense and commercial organizations are increasingly concerned about the resiliency of these networks.

That’s one reason why the defense sector has been so active in standards efforts including DIFI. In a nutshell: standards-based distributed, virtualized and cloud-enabled systems are more adaptable and reactive to disasters than hardware. It was one of the key motivations behind the Internet, to create a survivable global network even if large parts of the network were to fail.

How does DIFI come into play? By digitizing analog signals at or close to the antenna, data and communications can quickly be transferred for processing anywhere. Instead of being chained to a vulnerable, damaged or destroyed local gateway, processing is shifted to any devices that can handle data conforming to the DIFI standard. In addition, signals can be shifted to antennas at other gateways that are able to connect with the satellite in play, all contributing to far higher levels of operational resilience.

In addition, operations can be reconstituted faster since DIFI-based elements can be obtained more quickly from multiple vendors. That’s true for hardware components, and even more rapidly for virtualized software elements that can be downloaded instead of being shipped and installed.

5G NTN will add another layer of resiliency when it comes into widespread use, potentially allowing operations to roll over beyond antennas and gateways as well as between satellites and even networks.

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Supporting Space Domain Awareness through AI Enablement

2/24/2026

It’s been tremendously exciting to see how rapidly the DIFI standard has become so widely adopted for ground segment operations across earth observation (EO), remote sensing (RS) and TT&C applications. Its presence in satcom, milsatcom and mission download networks continues to expand and has become foundational across Ground-as-a-Service (GaaS) implementations.

Now we’re seeing expansion in another critical mission set, RF analysis and SDA applications, where DIFI is contributing to the creation of AI and machine learning (ML) capabilities.

Using DIFI, raw signals can be fed directly into private or public clouds very near the point of signal capture where they can be used to train AI and machine language analysis for signals intelligence. This is particularly cost effective for use with public cloud infrastructure that has global reach. Public clouds typically mainly charge for compute and egress of data, less so for ingress fees or the networking of the process results.

It’s broadly acknowledged that training is the greatest hurdle to effective AI adoption. Using a common data standard to ingest the data brings scale benefits to AI training and performing that training in the cloud while limiting data egress brings economic scale.

Once created, these AI/ML algorithms can then be deployed at scale across an entire set of deployed sensors in local public and private clouds. Relevant results and conclusions can then be output to local and centralized operations teams, taking full economic advantage of the cloud network. As satcom continues to expand its reach with NGSO constellations and very High Throughput Satellite (vHTS) architectures, signal monitoring at scale will be a necessity for both quality of service assurance and SDA applications.

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Well-Crafted Standards Enhance Flexibility. The gNodeB in 5G NTN is a Case in Point

1/27/2026

More than a little talk… and deep thinking… is ongoing about 5G NTN, especially where direct-to-device comes into play. Operators are working out their strategies, including the pack leaders who are defining the network architectures that will match their still-developing business plans.

Eutelsat, for example, just announced it is buying 340 additional satellites for its OneWeb LEO constellation. It’s well known that Eutelsat and the IRIS2 program plan to support 5G with these and future satellites. And while a major announcement last week from Blue Origin about its TeraWave constellation didn’t specifically mention 5G, it’s not a stretch to assume it’s at least a factor in their calculations.

One of the biggest questions in 5G NTN architectures for space is where to put the gNodeB. The gNodeB (Next Generation Node B) is the cornerstone radio base station that provides New Radio (NR) connectivity to user devices. In a terrestrial network it lives on the ground (of course), usually at the cell tower.

But what happens in a space network? Now you have two choices: on the ground or in space on the satellite. There are good arguments on both sides depending upon your satellite architecture, orbit, services and more. And depending upon your service areas, partners and customers, you might want a combination of both. The way LEO satellites interact with ground systems, for example, is fundamentally different from GEO.

So, you have to give the 3GPP folks due credit for designing a flexible standard that would support both industry-level interoperability and network-level flexibility.

Take a look at Starlink, for example, which just spent $17 billion to buy spectrum from Echostar. That spectrum that has no value without 5G NTN because it is intended to support unmodified phones.

Starlink’s core service, according to research firm Analysys Mason in a recent white paper, “does not adhere to interoperable networking standards.” According to the report’s authors, the constellation does use a modified form of the 4G core network protocol that achieves certain features, however “these have been adapted slightly for their needs and integrated with in-house software for an overall proprietary solution.”

Starlink will have to move to standard 5G NTN at least for its direct-to-device satellites that will connect to existing LTE-capable devices, using terrestrial spectrum from telco partners such as T-Mobile. The good news is that the 5G NTN standard is specifically designed to ensure interoperability between vendor systems and satellite operator networks. All that’s lagging is the technology implementation of the 5G NTN systems. That’s no small thing, of course, but it is catching up, and operators will have the flexibility to architect networks that will support and evolve with their respective missions, including how they choose to design and manage a cell tower in space.

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