Satellite “Ground Station as a Services” – A boost to Digital Transformation
In the last few years data produced daily by several private and public Earth Observation (EO) satellites reached the order of tens of Terabytes, representing for scientists and commercial application developers both a big opportunity for their exploitation and a challenge for their management. The space industry, like many others, is going through a transformation to the cloud. On one hand the future Digital Transformation comprise of new ICT such as 5G, AI and IOT as a foundation technology, there are Satellite Ground Stations (SGS) being built for collecting and streaming remote sensing satellite data for variety of users and applications.
Satellites have only limited capabilities to store, and process recorded data on-board: no matter how advanced, they are part of the larger Space programs, in which these satellites must be in direct contact with a ground station to download their data in real-time.
Ground stations, however, are quite expensive to build, operate and maintain. These challenges have brought, an ambit of new business models for the space industry. This paper focusses on understanding that business models and the power of space borne EO data in its ability to fill in the data gaps and integrate with other data sources that would offer a means to citizens to participate in decision-making and fostering accountability from authorities, which are critical for the development of a successful EO ecosystem.
The second step in the data value chain – processing and retrieval - requires costly high-speed computing facilities, and these facilities supplement the growing use of cloud computing and Managed Services. Local processing requires laptops, workstations, and specialized software that are also expensive. Cloud Service providers along with funding partners complements the right expertise for data analysis and tactical strategies supporting laws and regulations, policy frameworks, and key stakeholders that are interested in harnessing these vital data sources.
Developments over the last six years have made the digital transformation of the satellite ground station possible and necessary. The proliferation of non-geostationary satellites (NGSOs), also known as low earth orbit satellites (LEOs), the software-defined techniques adopted by geostationary (GEO) and medium earth satellites (MEOs), and the emergence of RF digitization and virtualization techniques in the satellite ground station have all come to maturity at the same time to enable the digital transformation of the satellite ground station. It is believed that “Ground Station as a Service” shall be based on SAPO Framework - Enterprise business Strategy, data and application Architecture, Policy, and Operations (SAPO), the new ecosystem with a solid foundation of connectivity, computing, platform and ecosystem which is deeply integrated, can offer a more comprehensive customer-oriented business solutions.
The single view platform for Ground Station as service integrates six ICT resources - IoT, big data, AI, video cloud, GIS, and ICP – to build four comprehensive service systems: security, operations control, services, and management with following five features
- 1. At a governmental level, people-oriented digital data and governance framework will be built to adapt to people's livelihoods better.
- 2. At an economic level, intelligent robots and location intelligence will make up a critical part of a future labor force.
- 3. At a social level, digital technology will help equalize the sharing and proper distribution of education, healthcare, and other public resources, achieving digital equality;
- 4. From a cultural point of view, citizens will be freed from heavy physical labor and tedious repetitive work, and their focus will naturally shift from material value to mental value; and
- 5. From an environmental point of view, the deployment of various digital technologies, will help to monitor and control carbon emissions, mitigate disaster related issues and provide a better resilience framework to protect the earth.
The landscape for emerging technologies that are either in development or in early nascency stage gives a glimpse of the gestating demand for “Ground Station as Service” with Cloud and DC Services in the near future. Machine learning and AI is becoming more sophisticated with every passing year. Some of the demand drivers for this technology are – self-driving cars, fraud detection devices, retail trends analyses, smart robots, computer vision platforms, Natural Language Processing, Virtual Assistants, Speech Recognition, Video Recognition, Gesture Control etc. Edge computing landscape will also come into more prominence with technologies like Virtual Reality, Health Sensors, Geo localization products, outdoor Bluetooth, Smart Charging and Smart Parking Sensors and various application-based usage of smart buttons going mainstream in the not too distant future. All these demand drivers are going to contribute massively to Big Data and its management.