Satellite operators must shift to cloud-native, standards-based networks to enable interoperability

Satellite networks are at a tipping point. Satellite communications (satcom) vendors are developing virtualised control planes and standards-based orchestration to break hardware lock-ins, enable multi-orbit interoperability and integrate with 5G/6G networks. Virtualisation will be a key enabler of future networks’ scalability and innovation. Operators are pursuing this transition through three main pathways:

• ASIC-based systems for large-scale high-throughput satellite (HTS) deployments, with fixed control and limited software-defined modulation
• FPGA-based¹ platforms with reprogrammable waveforms and separable baseband control in virtual machines (VMs) or Kubernetes² combined with cloud network management systems (NMS) and orchestration
• fully software-based CPU deployments that offer scalability but lower per-bit efficiency.