Isotropic Systems and SES have initiated a new developmental phase of their collaborative partnership to produce scalable, cost-effective, multi-beam, customer edge terminal antennas capable of unlocking access to the groundbreaking O3b mPOWER system across government and defence, telco and cellular backhaul, aero, maritime, and offshore markets.
Isotropic and SES customer edge terminal.
Together with SES, Isotropic Systems will review, refine, and test key components of its full line of customized digital software-defined terminals throughout 2020, optimizing the tiered platform to meet specific performance, cost, power, and connectivity requirements of user cases around the world. The development roadmap will culminate in a series of comprehensive engineering evaluations of Isotropic Systems’ multi-beam antenna components, prior to the commercial launch of the customer edge terminals and the O3b mPOWER MEO system in 2021.
Artistic rendition of SES' O3b mPOWER constellation on-orbit. Image courtesy of the company.
Many of the upcoming trials — the first underway this month — will focus on maximizing the effectiveness of the circuits behind the optical beam-forming lens modules at the core of the Isotropic Systems adaptable multi-beam antenna. The patented lens module technology is a major differentiator, enabling seamless switching between SES’s multi-orbit fleets, and opening the door to a new age of widely accessible and tailored high-performance Ku- and Ka-band connectivity.
SES and Isotropic Systems first announced their partnership in 2018 when SES contracted Isotropic Systems to develop smart, high-throughput customer edge terminal solutions for the O3b mPOWER system. The fully funded, next-gen and highly flexible MEO satellite-based data communications system is a scalable terabit-level constellation supporting thousands of dynamic beams, and exponentially expands SES’s first-generation O3b MEO system capabilities to deliver a whole new level of customization.
Stewart Sanders, SES’s EVP and O3b mPOWER Program Lead, stated that the SES-Isotropic Systems partnership is driving the development of innovative multi-beam customer edge terminal antennas using digital beamforming that will light up new market opportunities for the tailored scalability and flexibility of our O3b mPOWER network and the company's unique multi-orbit, MEO-GEO constellations. The firms' shared vision is keenly focused on bringing game-changing, high-performance broadband to both highly sophisticated and mass markets across the globe, on land, at sea, and in the air.
John Finney, Founder and CEO of Isotropic System, said the Isotropic Systems multi-beam antennas, featuring the firm's patented, optical, digital beam-forming lens technologies, provide the high-throughput ground infrastructure required to unlock a new wave of HTS constellations, including SES’s high-performance, multi-constellation, satellite networks across a wide range of markets. The Isotropic terminals are customizable to meet the performance, cost, and power requirements of countless applications – from the most complex government defence systems and mobile backhaul solutions capable of extending 5G, to next-gen connected experiences aboard commercial airliners, cruise ships, offshore rigs, and even small fishing boats at sea.
Isotropic Systems will showcase a mockup of the customer edge terminal antenna at the Satellite 2020 Conference and Exhibition at the Washington Convention Center on March 9-12 in Washington, DC.
