These solutions included managed satellite services that deliver an end-to-end network that is faster and easier to deploy for military and government organizations. They also included a new generation of turnkey mobile satellite solutions that can be easily moved where needed and utilized to deliver a large area of high-throughput, low-latency connectivity to those that need it via 5G or WiFi.

And while these solutions sound exciting in their ability to make satellite more accessible and easy to use for government and military organizations, we wanted to learn more about how they could make a difference in specific government use cases. In particular, we wanted to learn how a common scenario where satellite is often necessary – emergency and disaster response and recovery operations – could benefit from these new technologies.

To get a window into the ways these new satellite services and solutions could transform emergency and disaster response efforts and operations, we sat down for an in-depth discussion with Rashid Neighbors, who is the Vice President of Mobility and Integrated Solutions at ‎SES Space and Defense. During our discussion, we asked Rashid about how each of these solutions could be used in emergency response, what makes them different, and how they could effectively work together to transform the way the government communicates and operates in emergencies.

Here is what he said:

Government Satellite Report (GSR): There’s a long-held belief that satellite isn’t user-friendly. That rolling out satellite communications in emergencies isn’t seamless or possible at the speed necessary for emergency response. How is the satellite industry working to change this? What’s already been done?

Rashid Neighbors: No one ever wants to be in a situation where they have to use satellite communications because a natural disaster has destroyed terrestrial communications infrastructure. However, SATCOM is best suited to quickly provide connectivity in these sorts of scenarios.

We know that these scenarios require communications that are reliable, easy to use, and quickly deployable. So, the satellite industry has worked aggressively to tailor our solutions, make them more user friendly and eliminate a lot of the expensive hardware necessary to utilize SATCOM. One of the ways we’re doing this is by introducing managed services and new solutions that deliver the full end-user experience. This ensures that satellite services are there to meet mission-critical communications requirements in all situations.

GSR: Some of your associates at SES Space and Defense have recently contributed articles to the Government Satellite Report about some exciting new technologies and solutions that appear to be making satellite service more scalable, flexible, user-friendly and affordable. Included in that were the SKALA Global Network and new “Roll-On, Roll-Off” mobile satellite solutions. Let’s start with SKALA. How can the SKALA Global Network be used in emergency and disaster response scenarios?

Rashid Neighbors: In emergency response situations, SKALA is an excellent solution for keeping individual first responders and tactical operators connected with cost-effective terminals and hardware to utilize it. These off-the-shelf commercial solutions can be deployed quickly and inexpensively to meet the basic communications requirements of responders in the field.

In fact, an inexpensive fixed antenna on a non-pen mount that people in the industry often refer to as a “leave behind antenna” because of its low price point and mobility is all that’s really necessary to access the SKALA Global Network. And those antennas are excellent in wildfires and other natural disaster scenarios. They can be deployed quickly and easily and communications can be established in very short fashion. The lower price point of these antennas also means that local and federal government organizations and emergency response organizations could even preposition some of the equipment across the country to help further accelerate response.

“Think about the tactical operators responding to a hurricane that knocked out cellular networks…SKALA is an affordable, quickly-deployed solution to get those individuals the basic connectivity and communications services they need to save lives and safely do their jobs.” – Rashid Neighbors

Using the SKALA Global Network and these “leave behind antennas,” government organizations could deliver moderate throughput communications capabilities such as email, voice, access to situational awareness and mapping applications, and other services enabled by basic connectivity. This makes the service very cost-effective, while still delivering everything the first responder needs in the field to stay connected.

GSR: What about these “Roll-On, Roll-Off” mobile satellite solutions? Why would they be an exciting solution for emergency and disaster relief initiatives? What kinds of capabilities could that enable?

Rashid Neighbors: Our new, turnkey mobile connectivity solution set is extremely exciting for a number of reasons. They’re entirely integrated, self-contained and weather-proof solutions that are designed to work with our O3b MEO satellite network. The O3b MEO satellite constellation orbits at 5,000 miles versus 22,000 miles for traditional GEO satellites, which enables it to not only offer incredibly high throughputs, but do so with very low latency.

Combining O3b MEO satellite service with these new “Roll-On, Roll-Off” mobile connectivity options means that high-throughput, low latency connectivity can be delivered to practically any scenario and environment. These solutions are easily airlifted – or moved by forklift or crane – to where they’re needed. Once power is supplied, they begin providing an area of connectivity via 5G or WiFi, whether they’re on a ship at sea or on land.

So, how does this translate to a natural disaster or emergency situation? When disaster strikes, emergency response organizations come onsite and work to establish a center of operations where they can manage the situation, monitor tactical operators, provide care and services to impacted residents and perform other operations. If we airlift or trailer this mobile connectivity solution to this center of operations, we can deliver high-throughput, low-latency, broadband-like connectivity for the entire area to help support those operations and provide communications for the individuals close by.

This solution delivers so much capacity and bandwidth that the capabilities are basically limitless.

Individuals responsible for managing and directing response and rescue efforts could use it to access and monitor real-time, HD video feeds from drones and other sensors. They can use it to download large reports with images and maps. They can use the connectivity to aggregate and analyze an incredible amount of data. Field hospitals could use it to access and transmit medical histories and imagery. They could even use it to deliver telemedicine services into the field for victims of disasters.

GSR: How are these two solutions different? If you were an organization responsible for emergency and disaster response, why would you choose one over the other? Are there cost considerations? Hardware considerations? Differences in capabilities?

Rashid Neighbors: The major difference between the two solutions is the amount of throughput that they deliver. The SKALA Mobile Network is a solution that can be accessed with hardware that has an incredibly small footprint and that can deliver connectivity to the very edge – the tactical operator out in the field conducting search and rescue operations and other disaster response operations.

These individuals – forward operators – don’t require the immense capacity of the “Roll-On, Roll-Off” mobile connectivity solution. Instead, they require mission-critical, basic communications services in locations and scenarios where they have no other option because other networks are not available.

“All of these organizations and agencies are embracing digital transformation initiatives, network-enabled platforms, and applications to improve their operations. Solutions like SKALA and the “Roll-On, Roll-Off” mobile connectivity solution are just extending access to those solutions out to the tactical edge…” – Rashid Neighbors

Think about the tactical operators responding to a hurricane that knocked out cellular networks. Or the crew responding to a fire in a national forest where cell towers were never constructed. SKALA is an affordable, quickly-deployed solution to get those individuals the basic connectivity and communications services they need to save lives and safely do their jobs.

The “Roll-On, Roll-Off” mobile connectivity solution is a larger footprint solution that delivers much higher throughputs and capacity. If SKALA is capable of connecting the forward operators, the “Roll-On, Roll-Off” mobile connectivity solution would be used to deliver mission-critical connectivity to the command center.

Together, they can ensure that every individual and organization responsible for a coordinated, effective emergency response operation has access to the communications services that they need, when and where they need them.

GSR: How would the use of these solutions be better than what emergency and first responders are working with today? What additional capabilities would it give them? What other benefits would it enable?

Rashid Neighbors: Imagine a hurricane hits a large, well-populated region – or even an island – within the United States. This hurricane knocks out all communications infrastructure and terrestrial networks, so there’s no existing communications for first responders and the emergency response and relief agencies and organizations – agencies like FEMA – to use to stay connected and coordinated when they get boots on the ground.

In the past, the tactical operators and forward operators going out into the disaster-impacted areas to look for survivors and deliver aid to local residents would be resigned to just line-of-sight radio communications. This would enable them to have voice communications with those close by, but they wouldn’t have the reach-back connectivity needed to interact with the people that support them.

The agencies establishing command centers and base camps would also lack communications, hindering their ability to gather intelligence on the situation and have complete situational awareness. Agencies like FEMA – which functions to file claims and deliver economic relief and assistance to victims of natural disasters – would often revert to paper forms. This would drastically slow down the claims process.

Now, think about the same disaster response situation with the SKALA Global Network and the “Roll-On, Roll-Off” mobile connectivity solution in place.

The command center where operations were planned and monitored could have high-throughput, low-latency connectivity to support all of its operations. Forward, tactical operators could have basic communications services that not only allow them to stay connected with other emergency responders in the field, but to report back and communicate with the people that are providing them with support and managing operations.

Finally, an agency like FEMA could be using connected tablets and other ruggedized mobile devices to gather claims information and file claims. This would eliminate errors and lost claims information, while also expediting the process.

All of these organizations and agencies are embracing digital transformation initiatives, network-enabled platforms, and applications to improve their operations. Solutions like SKALA and the “Roll-On, Roll-Off” mobile connectivity solution are just extending access to those solutions out to the tactical edge – to the places where terrestrial networks either never existed, or no longer are available.

To learn more about the role that satellite solutions can play in emergency preparedness and disaster response, click HERE to download a complimentary copy of the whitepaper, ‘Emergency Response From Space.”

The post Fostering a more collaborative and coordinated disaster response with satellite appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

On Friday, the DoD announced that it had awarded SES Space and Defense a task order against its existing, single-award Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) for the purchase of the company’s new, portable maritime solution. This integrated, self-contained hardware solution will enable the DoD to easily and seamlessly deliver high-throughput, low-latency connectivity to ships at sea, docks, and forward operating bases via the SES O3b MEO satellite constellation.

The integrated nature of this new hardware solution makes it easy to airlift, forklift, or tow to where connectivity is needed, and requires nothing but a power source to deliver a veritable bubble of 5G or Wifi connectivity to network-enabled solutions, platforms, and vehicles at the tactical edge. According to SES, this new solution features a, “…self-contained ruggedized design [that] houses all equipment in a rack system with AC unit, power distribution, and a battery backup system and can achieve upwards of 400 Mbps x 200 Mbps of throughput over the O3b network.”

As Brigadier General Pete Hoene, USAF (retired), the President and CEO of SES Space and Defense, explained, “The need to provide resilient and diverse satellite communications is critical to meeting Department of Defense SATCOM requirements. This…turnkey MEO terminal…can be scaled up or down based on the number of users and support requirements. The demonstrated throughput is unsurpassed in a portable maritime system of this size.”

The DoD use cases for this new mobile solution are almost too-numerable to count – from enabling morale, welfare and recreation (MWR) capabilities aboard ships at sea, to the establishment of fully-connected, IT-enabled field hospitals with telemedicine capability in warzones. But the task order for this new mobile solution was just one of the major satellite announcements coming out of the DoD and SES this past week with the potential to deliver a more connected warfighter.

On Monday of this week, SES announced that it was working in partnership with a “key U.S. Government customer” to design, develop and field a loopback capability that would, “…provide greatly improved mission-critical communications for DoD operations in remote locations in Southwest Asia.”

Acquired via yet another task order issued against the existing, single-award BPA with the DoD, the implementation of this loopback configuration enables the DoD to utilize SES O3b MEO high-throughput, low-latency connectivity without the use of a commercial gateway. This is accomplished by leveraging, “…an in-theatre hub that provides in-beam connectivity, similar to a hub-spoke configuration, and is managed and controlled from an SES Network Operations Centre (NOC) via a Skala Network terminal.”

The adoption of this loopback configuration and the continued use of the SES O3b MEO satellite service will act as a bridge to enable warfighters that are off-grid and operating at the tip of the spear in Southwest Asia to still access important communications, intelligence information, and network-enabled platforms and applications.

“The growing threat within the region requires the troops to have access to near real-time decision-making intelligence at the tactical edge. This mission requires high-throughput, low-latency connectivity that only our O3b MEO constellation can provide flexibly,” explained Hoene. ” We understand these troops’ mission requirements in areas where there is no reliable terrestrial connectivity, and we’re excited to bring innovative and secure solutions via satellite to solve their problems.”

The need for connectivity at the edge is only increasing as the military embraces advanced network-enabled vehicles, systems, platforms, and weapons systems. These new DoD announcements not only illustrate how essential the military views network connectivity for its future mission and operations, but also illustrate the continued importance and reliance on satellite services and offerings to meet those connectivity requirements.

For additional information on the new, portable maritime solution being embraced by the DoD, click HERE. For additional information on the recently announced loopback configuration, click HERE.

The post DoD doubles down on MEO satellite to meet critical connectivity requirements appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

As network-enabled solutions have increasingly made their way into government and military operations, connectivity at the edge has become increasingly essential. Seemingly every government application, system, platform, or weapons system today is network-enabled or relies on access to data. Unfortunately, many government and military missions are conducted in places where terrestrial networks aren’t available.

In the case of our military, operations may be conducted in the middle of a foreign nation where they have yet to invest in building a terrestrial network infrastructure. Or, existing network infrastructures may be denied or untrusted for transmitting sensitive military data. Or, the mission may involve a ship at sea or a transport plane traveling well beyond the reach of any existing terrestrial network.

But this requirement isn’t limited to the military, and our government doesn’t only face this challenge outside of our borders. Large swaths of this nation – in many rural and remote locations – lack high-bandwidth terrestrial network connectivity. And places that do have terrestrial networks may find them compromised when they’re needed most – times like disaster scenarios and emergency relief situations.

In these instances, the ability for satellite to deliver connectivity to virtually anywhere, regardless of the presence of terrestrial networks is what makes it so essential. Unfortunately, satellite connectivity carries a stigma and misconceptions about ease of use and accessibility. There have long been concerns about the cost, interoperability, availability, and mobility of the ground hardware necessary to utilize satellites. And there have also been concerns among government users about cost and dependability.

Luckily, technological advancements and the introduction of new solutions and satellite acquisition models over the course of the last few years have gone a long way towards eliminating these challenges and misconceptions. Over the course of the next few articles, I’ll be joined by my associates at SES Space and Defense and other contributors to the Government Satellite Report as we look at some of the exciting new solutions, advancements, and offerings that are making satellite connectivity easier to use, more accessible and more available to the government organizations that need it in the field.

And one of the first offerings we’d like to discuss isn’t something new, per se. Rather, it’s a satellite managed service offering that has become a best practice in the private sector and is now being offered with the same dependability, reliability, and customer support that’s needed for government use cases – the SKALA Global Network.

Shared capacity on virtually any hardware
Traditionally, the use of commercial or purpose-built satellites by the government or military requires that the user builds the entire end-to-end infrastructure. Needless to say, this is an incredibly time-consuming and expensive undertaking with a return that may not be worth the investment. This is especially true for government agencies responsible for emergency and disaster response that will use their satellite solutions sporadically and only when disaster strikes.

But what if that agency could utilize the satellite hardware – terminals and antennas – that they already have to quickly, easily, and seamlessly connect via a commercial satellite solution without having to build the connection to the Internet and the uplink/downlink to the satellite? What if they could simply lease a small amount of capacity for a short period of time and have it function – when needed – without having to invest in and install hardware at a teleport? This is what satellite managed service offerings can deliver.

“With satellite managed service solutions, such as SKALA, agencies get just the satellite connectivity and capacity that they need for the short period of time in which they’re responding to an emergency situation…”

The managed service approach to commercial satellite acquisition is something that has become commonplace – or even a best practice – across the maritime industry in recent years. And it’s now something that’s available for government agencies through managed service offerings such as the SES Space and Defense SKALA Global Platform.

To implement SKALA, SES Space and Defense invested in and built the terrestrial network infrastructure necessary to make an end-to-end satellite solution function. Government agencies and organizations need only to have an existing contract with the company and load a configuration file onto their existing terminals and antennas to receive the satellite connectivity that they need.

With satellite managed service solutions, such as SKALA, agencies get just the satellite connectivity and capacity that they need for the short period of time in which they’re responding to an emergency situation. And they get access to that capacity without having to integrate their own hardware into a teleport, or invest in new hardware and terminals.

But there has been some concern within the government when it comes to acquiring satellite as a managed service because the satellite capacity of a spacecraft or transponder is available and shared between a number of different users. Sharing capacity through a satellite managed service has created hesitancy among government organizations that are wary that the capacity will be taken or monopolized by other users when it’s needed most.

Thankfully, this is another concern that has been eliminated via innovation and new technologies.

Companies like SES Space and Defense that are offering managed service solutions are embracing contention ratios that ensure that the number of users – and the number of terminals in use across those users – will never approach the bandwidth and capacity limits. They’re also utilizing next-generation network management solutions and spacecraft with steerable beams to ensure that the requisite, contracted capacity is always available when it’s needed most.

As government agencies and the military increasingly rely on network-connected solutions, applications, and systems to accomplish their missions, the need for connectivity will only grow. And the off-grid nature of many of those missions will only make satellite an increasingly essential part of their operations in the future. Agencies that have avoided embracing satellite because of the hardware requirements and fear of high costs no longer have to go without.

Managed services, like SKALA, are the solution – making it possible to get the requisite connectivity with the necessary reliability they need without the effort and expense of building their own end-to-end satellite system.

In the next article in this series, my associate, Ernie Higham, will take an in-depth look at innovative, all-inclusive mobile terminal solutions that are making high-throughput, low-latency connectivity possible practically anywhere on the planet.

The post SKALA – how satellite managed services could deliver seamless emergency response connectivity appeared first on SES Space and Defense.