Interoperability is Critical to the Future of Space

We are entering an industrial era in which space is becoming an important driver of technological advancement, global sustainability and geopolitical competition; one in which investing in interoperability is more critical than ever. Prioritizing interoperability and decentralization is now required to ensure that space exploration brings more benefit than harm to humanity.

Throughout history, the transition into a new industrial age has necessitated transformative infrastructure projects to build out electrical grids, rail networks and telecommunications networks. These massive undertakings have often been catalyzed by a small group of visionary pioneers. Companies like Westinghouse, Siemens, General Electric and AT&T propelled industrial progress through rapid scale-up and capital investment concentrated in key areas of the value chain.

Much of this progress was made through vertically integrated services and supply chains, which, while initially necessary, would eventually evolve into more decentralized systems that needed to standardize and be interoperable in order to scale.

We will soon be at a similar crossroads for space. Everything from spacecraft design, launch, and on-orbit operations to end-of-life and disposal will necessitate interoperable and decentralized design. One of the most critical areas is communications – where the failure to coordinate and interoperate has a history of slowing progress.

Even as recently as the development of 3G in the United States, telecommunication operators did not coordinate on the use of a single standard; bifurcating the four, tier-one carriers. The use of CDMA technology locked consumers into a single provider, among many other challenges that came with navigating the WCDMA vs GSM/EDGE incompatibilities. There was no benefit of roaming, multi-year contracts and, if consumers wanted to change carriers, they had to buy a new phone. In fact, the potential of nearly every generation of telecommunications technology has been limited by lack of interoperability. Space can be different.

In space, we have the opportunity to create a near-Earth-orbit communications network that is more sustainable, secure and resilient than the terrestrial internet. We call it the Outernet. However, to achieve this goal we will have to commit now to the most fundamental level of interoperability possible.

One of the first steps to building an interoperable Outernet starts with aligning on the basic protocols for interconnection. One such protocol is the Outernet Council’s Federation API, which seeks to create a common framework for exchanging capacity and spectrum among space communications networks. This is a critical component to establishing and accelerating the Outernet and a sustainable future in space.

The Benefits of Interoperability

Deep interoperability across multiple technology layers, will yield significant benefits – not just when it comes to building the Outernet, but across all aspects of the space economy.

Fostering Innovation: While initial vertical integration might jump-start industry development, sustained innovation often relies on competitive pressures that only interoperability across multiple systems and parties can provide. Interoperable systems can encourage a competitive market where multiple entities can contribute improvements and new technologies, driving continuous advancement.

Ensuring Fair Access and Competition: Interoperability can aid in preventing any single entity from monopolizing access to essential services. This enables new entrants, including those from emerging economies, to compete on a level playing field, enhancing global access to and benefits from space technologies.

Simplifying Regulatory Oversight: Vertically integrated networks often necessitate complex regulatory frameworks to manage and mitigate abuses of monopoly power. Interoperability, by encouraging a landscape populated by multiple stakeholders, can lighten the regulatory burden while ensuring fair and efficient market operations.

Improving Service Quality and Coverage: In a competitive, interoperable environment, service providers are motivated to continuously enhance their offerings to retain and grow their market share. This dynamic is crucial in space communications where technology improvements can significantly enhance the reliability and security of global communications infrastructures.

Sustainable Development: Sustainable practices are paramount in space operations. Interoperability can facilitate the integration of global sustainability standards into space technologies, promoting responsible practices such as debris management and resource conservation.

The Market Effects of Interoperability

Promoting interoperability necessitates that we choose which technologies to standardize and which to encourage industry to build competitively. This requires a collective decision not to maximize profit margins in areas that we believe are needed for interoperable standards.

Thus, every choice to make a technology interoperable (and potentially commoditised) must be backed by an economic and business model to support the critical components that are necessary elements to construct a viable industrial base, such as subsidies, tax incentives and other mechanisms.

Interoperability Necessitates Collective Action

Achieving broad interoperability requires a commitment to seeking consensus across a diverse range of national and international stakeholders. In addition to the organizations that have laid the foundation of terrestrial communications standards (e.g. ITU, IETF, IEEE, 3GPP, ETSI, ANSI, and many others), a number of organizations have already taken up the mantle of interoperability in space communications, including:

● The Interplanetary Networking Special Interest Group, which was founded in 1998 to extend terrestrial networking into solar system space;

● The Digital Intermediate Frequency Interoperability (DIFI) Consortium, which focuses on providing an interoperable Digital IF/RF standard that replaces the natural interoperability of analog IF signals;

● The WAVE Consortium, which aims to transform the satcom industry towards a fully interoperable ecosystem by using intelligent, open, and virtualized networks to provide standardized architectures and specifications;

● The Outernet Council, which focuses on melding policy, regulatory and technical solutions to accelerate the creation of the space internet that is more secure, resilient and sustainable than the terrestrial internet

● The Space Systems MOSA Interface Standards Alliance, which is interested in rapidly developing modular open system approach (MOSA) compliant space system standards that will enable interoperability at key system interfaces.

We applaud each of these efforts, and recognise that it is often natural for multiple parallel interoperability efforts to arise, especially in nascent industries.

As long as these efforts at achieving interoperability communicate, coordinate and continue to interoperate within themselves, thus becoming multiple collaborative initiatives all marching toward the same goal, there is significant potential for these activities to be entirely complimentary. Working together they can accelerate the collective mission.

We are especially encouraged by an emerging trend of multinational efforts aimed at promoting interoperability. Most notably the Earth∞Space Sustainability Initiative, which brings together industry, academia, governments and international organizations with the finance and insurance communities to ensure that space continues to support the environmental, economic and scientific interests of current and future generations.

Industry leaders, governments and organizations must unite now to prioritize interoperability, ensuring that humanity can achieve a sustainable and resilient vision of space. The time to act is now; our future in space depends on it. This work starts today with organizations like the Outernet Council, the Earth∞Space Sustainability Initiative, and many others. VS

Joanne Wheeler is the Managing Director of Alden Legal

Brian Barritt is CTO at Aalyria where he supports the software infrastructure for orchestrating networks across land, sea, air, and space that they spun out from Google.

Michael Cheng is Chief Product Officer at Aalyria Technologies. Michael is a former engineer, product manager and Head of Open Source at Facebook.

Editor's note: This article has been updated from an earlier version