High Impact Thought-Leadership Panels a Key Feature Embedded in World’s Major 5G Event
Post-Event Summary
On 13th June 2019 the GVF-Century 21 Communications (formerly the GVF-EMP) Partnership presented the latest programme in its portfolio, with a focus on the evolution of the relationship of satellite communications solutions to cellular, or mobile, networks, as the latter evolves towards the next generation – 5G.
The Partnership’s Cellular Backhaul 2019: Satellite and the 5G Journey was, for the second year, a major embedded element of the InformaTech ‘5G World’ and ‘IoT World Europe’ events. The programme was dedicated to exploring the current interaction between the satellite and wireless industries, the current and future growth of data traffic from wireless mobile devices and how that will impact both cellular and satellite networks as they increasingly converge and integrate.
Amongst a number of high impact observations and outcomes (some of which tended to the rather controversial), the programme dialogues notably pointed to the need for the satellite industry to substantially accelerate the degree of its evolving technological and service capabilities in order for it to work more successfully with the Mobile Network Operator (MNO) community. Also stressed was the need for the satellite industry to meet the MNO community’s expectations and requirements as well as to “talk-the-talk” of the MNOs (rather than just “talk satellite”) as a fully integrated partner in the telecommunications environment revolution. The marketplace is evolving away from a satellite industry and a mobile wireless industry towards a unified telecommunications industry – an integrated network of networks. To quote one of the panellists, “5G is the industry catalyst pushing the satellite community to evolve as a full partner into the 5G Unified Network Infrastructure (wired, wireless, terrestrial, and satellite).”
As earlier references to satellite as an integral part of 5G – with a focus on satellite Use Cases – which featured in the 3GPP (the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, a standards organization which develops protocols for mobile telephony) Release 16 document mature towards greater detail and clarity in Release 17, the programme dialogue identified it as being vital for the satellite industry to go beyond only the – already identified – Use Cases. Focusing on the overall role of satellite in eMBB (Enhanced mobile broadband), mMTC (Massive machine type communications), uRLL Ultra reliable and low latency communications, is not enough, and nor is focusing on the enhanced technological contributions of HTS/VHTS in GSO and the expansion in the throughput capabilities of MEO constellations, and of new LEO-based systems, and of the emerging low-cost terminal technologies (i.e., FPAs – flat panel antennas). Beyond all of this satellite must seriously question the absence from the satellite solutions environment of terminal technology interoperability (or even of standardization), the absence of Zero Touch Service Provisioning (Orchestration, Operations & Management) in contrast to the MNO environment, and to more effectively challenge the widely-held negative perceptions about satellite in the mobile wireless community that, even if they are misconceptions, are very deeply rooted ones.
So, the underlying big questions remain –
How will the MNOs choose to deploy 5G over satellite?
Well, in the first place, the forecast for 5G rollouts over satellite is not before 2024 and by then 5G solutions will have matured with MNOs deploying White Box solutions maximizing their 5G performances. Will MNOs push these tried and proven solutions over satellite? Before then, of course, 4G will continue to see strong levels of deployment and will become mainstay of bandwidth and revenue growth over the next decade. A forecast for just one year later, 2025, has it that by that time 90% of mobile traffic will be video or audio streaming, applications for which satellite can certainly lay claim to a long and successful association.
And, what will be the role of space-based networks in the 5G era?
Some thoughts from the content of Cellular Backhaul 2019: Satellite and the 5G Journey:
- Help foster 5G service roll out in un-served or underserved areas, upgrading the performance of terrestrial networks;
- Reinforce service reliability by providing service continuity for user equipment or for moving platforms (aircraft, ships, high speed trains, etc;)
- Increase service availability everywhere; especially for critical communications;
- Enable 5G network scalability through the provision of efficient multicast/broadcast resources for data delivery towards the network edges or even directly to the user equipment.
The thought-leadership panels comprising Cellular Backhaul 2019: Satellite and the 5G Journey are as shown below and PDF copies of the panellists’ slide decks can be downloaded from www.uk-emp.co.uk.
Backdrop & Context
| Cellular Backhaul @ 5G World… Setting the Context Lluc Palerm-Serra, Senior Analyst, NSR |
Unlocking Opportunities via Satellite…. Beyond the Backhaul Opportunity & Paradigm Shifting Integration with “the Network”
| 5G… From Hype to Reality – When & Where are the Satellite Opportunities Michael DiPaolo, Vice President Cellular Backhaul Business Development, Comtech EF Data Satellite: An Integral Part of 5G Marco Mirante, Regional Sales Director, Hughes Where will Satellite Sit in the Delivery of 5G Functionality Semir Hassanaly, Market Director Mobile Backhaul & Trunking, Newtec GVF Cellular Backhaul John Finney, Founder & CEO, Isotropic Systems Ltd Backhaul via Satellite: What is the State of Play? Philippe Llau, Head of Data Business Unit MENA & APAC, Eutelsat Unlocking Opportunities via Satellite – Beyond the Backhaul, with integration into the Network Simon Gatty Saunt, VP Sales EMEA Fixed-Data, SES Networks |
The Mobile Ecosystem…. Satellite Use Cases in 5G Deployed Infrastructures
| 5G’s Universality & Satellites Ali Younis, Head of Business Development & Product Marketing, Astranis Space Technologies Utilizing Microwave Mobile Backhaul Traffic Steering for 4G/5G Satellite Offload Tim Peyla, Senior Director Business Development, XipLink From Cellular Backhaul to 5G over Satellite Savyon Wasser, Director Vertical Market Solutions, VT iDirect Towards 5G… Yair Maor, General Manager EMEA, Gilat Satellite Networks Building the Capabilities to Support the 5G Roll Out Deepukrishnan Pillai, Senior Analyst – Strategy & Market Intelligence, SES |
Evolution of Ground Equipment…. Infrastructure & Device-to-Device Systems
| How to Simplify Operations in 5G & IoT Applications Sebastien Couvet, EMEA Sales Manager, Integrasys Satellite & 5G Networks: More in Common than You Might Think Mark Lambert, Vice President Business Development, Kratos |
Architectures and Technologies…. Meshing Mobile Wireless & Broadband Satellite
| Hybrid Satellite/Cellular Network: 5G for Everyone… Everywhere Esat Sibay, Co-Founder & Chief Financial Officer, ALCAN Systems Satellite in Hybrid & Converged Solutions Jaime Reed, Director Consulting Services, CGI Fixed Wireless Access Networks in Licensed Bands – An Alternative to Fiber for Last Mile Satellite Backhaul Javier Santos, Business Development Engineer, Inster Hybrid Use Cases for Satellite in 5G Gerry Collins, Director Product Management, Intelsat |