GateHouse Telecom developing universal satcom interface

Satellite industry software provider GateHouse Telecom has revealed it is developing a technology that will allow a single physical satcom terminal to use multiple satellite systems.

The company is developing a new interface that will allow users to run the same satcom terminal hardware and interface on different satellite services.

GateHouse Telecom product manager Svend Holme Sørensen said the project reflects the company’s belief that there is a need for a universal satcom application interface.

“To stay connected, user terminals have to adapt to changes in data routing and frequent changes of satellites,” he said.

“Our new software platform, when based on software defined radio hardware, combined with the increasing availability of multi-service antenna systems opens the possibility of operating terminals on several satellite systems.”

He said such demand appeared to be reflected in discussions at this year’s SmallSat Symposium in Silicon Valley.

“There seems to be a general wish to run satellite constellations using network management functions, for example, software defined networks. However, this kind of functionality goes beyond the existing protocol specifications used today.”

Using the same hardware terminal for multiple satellite systems would allow developers and engineers to bring down user terminal costs by increasing volumes to improve business cases.