Graham Warwick Boeing-backed startup demonstrates first multi-orbit, multi-link satcom connectivity.
Graham Warwick
UK antenna startup Isotropic Systems has developed a terminal it believes could accelerate the ongoing consolidation of the satellite communications industry by enabling operators to offer services across multi-orbit networks.
Boeing-backed Isotropic has demonstrated the first simultaneous connections with communications satellites in different orbits, its solid-state terminal linking to SES spacecraft in both geostationary and medium Earth orbits.
Field tests of the multi-orbit, multi-link antenna were conducted at SES’ teleport in Manassas, Virginia, the terminal simultaneously linking with a Hughes Jupiter satellite in geostationary orbit (GEO) and an O3b satellite in medium Earth orbit (MEO).
Existing satcom terminals can link to only one network in one orbit at a time. But satcom providers are moving to multi-orbit networks. GEO satellite operator Viasat has struck a deal to acquire Inmarsat, which is adding high-Earth-orbit satellites covering the poles to its GEO fleet. Telesat is to augment its GEO fleet with a constellation in low Earth orbit.
“Those core nodes in space have no ability to talk to each other,” says John Finney, founder and CEO of Isotropic. “What we have announced is the world’s first confirmed multi-orbit, multi-link satellite connectivity. It allows service providers and operators to reimagine how they deliver services.”
Isotropic’s Ka-band terminal uses a core module comprising an optical beamforming lens beneath which is an array of antenna feeds. When one feed is turned on, the lens passively bends its beam in one direction. By turning on different feeds, multiple beams can be independently steered across the entire field of view of the antenna.
“It’s a single solid-state device that functions as an optical beamforming array and allows us to light up as many links to satellites as we want,” he says. “It doesn’t matter whether the antenna or satellites are on the move, or both, we can stay locked onto them and pass traffic independently through each link. And what makes us unique is that every single link accesses the full power of the antenna aperture.”
Consolidation is coming to the satcom industry, Finney says, and showing companies it is possible to operate across orbits. “Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have come along with really big systems, and that’s forced the incumbent players to build big systems of their own. What we’re seeing is a 3,000% increase in capacity from now to 2027,” he says.
Facing price competition, major operators are looking to differentiate their services. “They can’t sustain the prices, so they are going multi-orbit. And what’s the point of going multi-orbit if you can’t mesh them together into a single service? We’re the only ones that can, and so I think we’re becoming a strategic enabler,” Finney says.
“Since those satellites and antennas can only talk to one at a time, the breakthrough moment for the industry is a single piece of technology that can connect to all without any restriction,” he says. “We don’t do fast-switching. We don’t divide the performance of the antenna by the number of links. We don’t have multiple antennas to achieve the objective with brute force and increase the cost.”
Electronic phased-array antennas have thousands of radiating elements, all powered up to generate a single beam in any given direction, he says. “We let the lens do 80% of the scanning. We bend the radio wave through the lens and position that beam by lighting off one or two feeds below the lens.”
Founded in 2013, the startup plans to launch its first product in Summer 2022, targeting the defense market first, offering mobile and fixed terminals. “We will develop an aero product,” Finney says.
Expected to be available in 2024, Isotropic’s aero antenna will combine live TV from GEO satellites with high-speed broadband from MEO and LEO constellations while providing an independent, secure link for real-time aircraft data as well as GPS-denied position, navigation and timing, thanks to the multiple links.
“And we only light up the required number of feeds under each lens for that number of beams. All the others we switch off. That significantly reduces the power versus conventional phased arrays. On aircraft that’s a big deal because power consumption and weight is important,” Finney notes.
“We’re talking about significantly increasing the passenger experience and significantly decreasing the onboarding costs of our terminal. Our [cost] is a fraction of the market leader’s. And the performance that we offer is 9-12 times more than they get through an antenna of similar size.”
The core module comprises a beamforming lens and antenna feed array. Credit: Isotropic Systems
