Messaging, Internet of Things, and Positioning Determination Services via Small Satellite Constellations

Abstract

The focus of the satellite application market for many years has been on broadband services and especially on video services provided by large high-powered satellites located in geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO). This type of service, known in the parlance of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as broadcast satellite service (BSS), has been the top source of revenues. Companies providing direct broadcast satellite services have, in fact, produced over 70% of satellite service income. Today there is a burgeoning new market associated with digitally networked services that small satellite constellations might be able with particular skill. Some of these services require only thin data streams and can be provided by quite small and cost-effective satellite networks. Others may demand much higher data rates and thus may be serviced by significantly higher data rates.

The focus of this particular chapter is on messaging, machine-to-machine (M2M), automatic identification services (AIS), and new forms of satellite-based Internet of Things (IoT) services. These are the new types of services that much small satellite constellations with lower bit rates can provide. These new systems such as Orbcomm, Kepler, Spire, Else, Kineis, ELO, and others can be deployed at much lower cost than the bigger mini-satellite systems seeking to provide broadband services. They can also operate to much lower-cost omnidirectional ground terminals.

It is possible that mini-satellite constellations with much higher-throughput rates optimized for 5G services and video via over the top data streaming services will create very large new multibillion dollar markets. These types of services, however, will be provided by larger types of small satellites configured to operate in higher data rate constellations. These services will be reserved for either GEO high-throughput satellites or mini-satellite constellations. This gigabit per second market, if served by small satellites, will be reserved for those megaconstellations being implemented by OneWeb, SpaceX’s Starlink, LeoSat, Boeing, Thales, and others.

This chapter concentrates on the interactive satellite messaging services that deal in megabits per month rather than process information in gigabits/second.