The Digital Intermediate Frequency Interoperability (DIFI) Consortium has announced that the United States Army’s / AMC / CECOM / USAISEC, the military’s Information Systems Engineering Command, joined a growing number of military and government organizations to become a member of the Consortium — the USAISEC joins the United States Navy, Space Force, NATO, the USA’s Defense Information Agency and World Teleport Association (WTA) as members, according to DIFI Chairman, Stuart Daughtridge.
A complete list of DIFI members can be found at this direct infolink…
The U.S. Army Information Systems Engineering Command (USAISEC) provides engineering and associated support of Information Technology (IT) at Army posts, camps, and stations; interconnection between installations, and extension to deployed forces. USAISEC delivers strategic and operational readiness by providing experienced people, using proven engineering standards and processes to implement modern IT solutions to the Army and Joint Warfighter. USAISEC empowers the Army to succeed by embodying expertise in Systems Engineering, IT Networking, Infrastructure, and Cybersecurity.
Increasingly the need for digital interoperability has become something the military is anxious to see become reality. The successful transformation of the ground segment of the space, satellite and related industries can only be done, according to DIFI and its members, by providing and bringing to market a simple, open, interoperable Digital IF/RF standard to replace the natural interoperability of analog IF signals. Preventing vendor lock-in is a desirable goal for the government and commercial satellite industry sectors.
DIFI has been moving the process of standardization along rapidly, including successful testing of versions of the standard at two industry PlugFests within the past nine months. The first in North America in October 2023 and the most recent one Europe at the UK’s Satellite Applications Catapult’s campus in Harwell.
“We have moved the ball significantly up the field to establish a standard that meets the broadest range of needs for the military and commercial sectors. We believe we are closing in on the ability to reduce overwhelming degrees of complexity and costs for implementation,” said Daughtridge, who in addition to serving as DIFI Chairman, is also the head of Advanced Technology at Kratos Defense and Security Solutions. Daughtridge was nominated as Satellite Executive of the Year for his work with DIFI. “We have a little more work to do on the standard but we are moving at a good pace,” he added.
“The DIFI standard is designed to boost network and terminal agility, performance and resilience, enabling ground segment to seamlessly adapt to rapidly changing space-layer payloads, orbits and constellations,” said DIFI board member, Simon Swift of ETL Systems.
About DIFI
The Digital Intermediate Frequency (IF) Interoperability Consortium, or DIFI, has created a standard that enforces interoperability on digital IF/RF technology. Digital IF was developed to overcome the limitations of analog systems but, today, vendor lock-in prevents it from delivering seamless interoperability and severely limits its adoption. A truly interoperable digital IF, on the other hand, will enable transformation to a virtualized ground segment, reducing the total cost of ownership and significantly boosting network and terminal agility and scalability. Compliance with the DIFI standard will ensure that satellite ground segments can seamlessly adapt to rapidly changing space-layer payloads, orbits, and constellations. Ultimately, DIFI promises to elevate the resilience, performance, and capabilities of satellite networks and enable a digital transformation that integrates satellites seamlessly into the larger telecom, IT and GIS markets.
