InBroadcast
Innovations in technology,
services and in the wider ecosystem will combine to continue to make satellite
connectivity relevant in the communications sector well into the 2020s and
beyond.
The data demands of the world,
including the impending explosion of the Internet of Things communications,
won’t be handled by terrestrial infrastructure alone. Indeed the rollout of 5G
– nominally a wireless network - is predicated on their being a flourishing
orbital comms and complementary optical fibre industry.
That
said, while satellite operator revenues will ramp up in terms of telco- and
data-driven traffic, direct to home broadcasts (DTH) will erode. At the same
time, video will be the main driver behind the growth in mobile data traffic, forecast
by Ericsson to grow by around 35% annually through 2024. Satellite may carry
less video DTH in future as video goes to mobile devices, but it will be
essential for backhaul.
Based
on the latest market projections by analysts Euroconsult wholesale capacity
revenues from telecom applications will surpass video applications by 2021. The
growth is largely supported by the influx of low-cost capacity from new Video
High Throughput Satellite (V-HTS) systems and non-geostationary satellite orbit
broadband in the coming years. As a result, total capacity supply is projected
to grow eight-fold from 1.3 Tbps in 2017 to nearly 10 Tbps by 2022.
"In
the short term, the impact on legacy services and the related pressure on the
economic performance of operators could be unfortunately described as a
necessary pain, and is certainly no different from the cycles observed in other
industries navigating a breakthrough innovation period,” said Pacôme Révillon,
CEO of Euroconsult.
The
growth acceleration in HTS capacity demand confirms Euroconsult’s view of the
market shift from regular video transmission to these high-throughput
satellites, which with their increasingly sophisticated and all-digital
satellites, and the planet’s increasing demand for telecom-type applications
will drive usage ever higher.
HTS
capacity leased increased to around 594 Gb/s in 2017, a new high, and a clear
acceleration (+36%, year-on-year) in take-up across all telecom verticals. HTS
capacity growth was driven by several factors, including increasing capacity
usage for consumer broadband and backhaul as new system launches facilitated
growth across multiple global regions. In addition, a number of operators
succeeded in leasing entire payloads, which resulted in a stepped increase of
the initial growth phase in certain markets.
Data network in the sky
According
to US-based LeoSat Enterprises, the need to move large quantities of data
quickly and securely around the world is fast outpacing the infrastructure in
place to carry it. Existing networks are already carrying more than 1 Zeta Byte
of traffic globally and this is set to grow exponentially.
That’s
the context for its launch of a new ‘data network in the sky’ (for the US
market) comprised of a constellation of up to 108 low-earth-orbit (LEO) communications
satellites.
It
is targeting sectors such as enterprise-to-enterprise communications,
telecommunications, oil and gas operations and maritime services, delivering
premise-to-premise data at greater than 1 Gbps to any location in the world.
The company envisages its satellites providing primary 4G and 5G satellite backhaul connectivity for cellular operators.
Operating in polar orbits at an altitude five times closer to the Earth than medium earth orbit satellites and 25 times closer than geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites, LeoSat says it will be able to provide enterprise-grade, highly secure data transmissions with up to 1.2 Gbps of connectivity per link (and 5.2 Gbps where needed), along with a latency of less than 20 ms.
The company envisages its satellites providing primary 4G and 5G satellite backhaul connectivity for cellular operators.
Operating in polar orbits at an altitude five times closer to the Earth than medium earth orbit satellites and 25 times closer than geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites, LeoSat says it will be able to provide enterprise-grade, highly secure data transmissions with up to 1.2 Gbps of connectivity per link (and 5.2 Gbps where needed), along with a latency of less than 20 ms.
“These
high-throughput satellites will form a mesh network interconnected through
inter-satellite laser links, creating an optical backbone that is approximately
1.5 times faster than terrestrial fibre networks,” it claims.
Satellite and 5G
In
Europe an EC-funded project, SaT5G consortium, has brought together
stakeholders from the global satcom industry, with mobile operators and
research centres focused on identifying opportunities for collaboration between
terrestrial and satellite operators in the 5G.
SES
for example, along with VT iDirect, Broadpeak, i2CAT and the University of
Surrey, demonstrated a proof-of-concept earlier this year for the integration
of satellite with a terrestrial 5G network. In the demo, SES powers the space
segment with its existing ASTRA 2F geostationary satellite system, and provides
an end-to-end managed service between the remote and the test bed.
This
is just one milestone in a much larger, multi-year project intended to develop
a cost-effective ‘plug-and-play’ satcom solution for 5G;
Over
the next few years, the SaT5G intends to demonstrate use cases such as Edge
delivery and offload for multimedia content “to optimise the operation and
dimensioning of the 5G network infrastructure”; and 5G fixed backhaul to provide
5G services, particularly in suburban and rural areas and emerging markets.
Backhaul
refers to the transfer of vast quantities of traffic onto satellite for ease of
onward distribution. Telcos are already shifting some of their traffic onto
satellite in order to cope with the explosive growth in demand from 2G to 3G,
4G and in readiness for 5G.
Satellite
can also play a role, it is argued, in rolling out 5G to rural areas of
developed countries via hybrid broadband connections and providing mobile
backhaul to support 5G services on vessels, aircraft and trains.
Satellite and fibre
Satellite
operators also argue that too often, satellite and fibre are considered
competitive approaches.
Fibre
is certainly considered to be the most economical method for delivering large
amounts of bandwidth.
“It’s
the ideal solution for so many scenarios – but not all,” contests John McCann,
director customer enablement at SES. “That’s because fibre is highly
susceptible to breakage, which is not an uncommon phenomenon. Outages and
performance degradations can be a problem as well. This is why it’s ideal for
companies to diversify their bandwidth – using the source that is most
cost-effective and best suited for their needs in the moment.”
He
continues, “Uninterrupted business operations are now an expectation, not a
luxury. But the innovation, productivity and efficiency enabled by the cloud is
meaningless without access to a fast, reliable connection – not just sometimes,
but every single time it’s needed. Which means diversifying connections to the
cloud using both fibre and satellite has become more critical today than ever.”
SES
can point to its O3b Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) constellation for delivery of
gigabits of capacity with very low latency; “it provides a fibre-like
experience for cloud connectivity – anywhere,” adds MCann.
When
it comes to video, satellite operators also point out that in mature
markets around 15% of TV households will remain best served by a combination of
satellite and other delivery infrastructure, a figure rising to 85% in regions
like the Middle East.
Hybrid satellite OTT
To
deliver interactive multi-screen offers which broadcasters need to survive, the
traditional satellite broadcast is being teamed with OTT streaming through
hybrid platforms.
One
such is CIRRUS, a hybrid satellite-OTT delivery solution launched by Eutelsat a
few months ago.
Gerry
O’Sullivan, executive VP, global TV and video, Eutelsat, explains, the
rationale.
“You
can’t underestimate the burden to broadcasters of building and maintaining a
OTT platform. The sheer number of devices and updates is a real distraction. We
are offering a turnkey end-to-end solution that takes the burden away from
broadcasters, allows them to focus on their core content business, and
demonstrates a roadmap for innovation. It means that those who were
disenfranchised previously can for the first time launch OTT.”
Through
its dual offer of turnkey DTH services and OTT multiscreen delivery, this new
service is a further step for Eutelsat in the integration of satellite
into the IP ecosystem.
Technical
partners in the project include Irdeto (CA), Nagra (unified back-end) and CDN
CenturyLink.
Latency
is said to be 5 seconds, similar to competing OTT services. “OTT providers and
sports rights holder have experienced major issues with latency in recent
time,” said O’Sullivan. “The only way of viewing high quality video is
satellite. We are offering a cost-effective path for DTH broadcasters to
address their customer demand for OTT with a seamless user experience.”
Globecast
has had terrestrial and OTT services for several years. The latest incarnation
is dubbed GCXN which offers a “carrier grade” transport service for video over
IP. It hooks into Globecast’s managed fibre footprint, Globecast Backbone
Network (GCBN).
Euronews,
the most-watched international news channel in Europe, is a client Globecast is
supplying an end-to-end transport solution using its GCXN and GCBN connectivity
which lowers the cost for Euronews of its channel carriage.
Content
is transported from Euronews’ media facility in Lyon to a facility in Paris.
From there, the channels are being delivered via the GCXN service to 60
affiliate operators worldwide.
Globecast
also offers a ‘TV Everywhere’ fully managed, OTT streaming service which links
with its video head-end satellite service.
Sidebar: The bigger picture from Arqiva
Network
infrastructure provider Arqiva is mulling the future of some of its sites in
the UK, the U.S and Singapore as part of a review of its satellite and media
business unit.
“Satellite
should no longer be seen as a discrete technology, competing against other
contribution and distribution technologies,” explains Nick Moreno, Director of
Strategy, Satellite & Media. “This is particularly true when looking at the
potential of 5G, whatever forms and business models it takes in the future.
“What
is certain is that 5G needs to work across both terrestrial and satellite
technologies, so that the solution to the consumer or business customer is a
unified network that offers frictionless connectivity. In practice this means
steering traffic between terrestrial and satellite on a dynamic basis,
depending on the specific application, bandwidth, latency etc.
“The
key value-add service here is the orchestration layer, which will need to use
Software Defined Networking and Network Functions Virtualization in order to
functionalise traffic steering between different technologies in a unified
network.
“It
has to be said that many satellite companies are terrific when it comes to
traditional video and data distribution over their existing networks – but are
somewhat conservative when it comes to innovation and building new commercial
models that combine terrestrial and satellite technologies. As data demands
increase and customers look for technology-agnostic, seamless services, those
conservative satellite companies will need to change their approach if they
want to avoid being left out of unified network solutions.”
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