115 - Interoperability, Open Standards and the Next Level of Flexibility

On this Constellations Podcast, we’ll discuss the benefits of open standards. During this episode, Constellations has brought together a panel of three to discuss standards and how they will improve delivery of SATCOM services. Lt. Col. Gary Thompson from the U.S. Space Force, Ben Hilburn from Azure Spectrum Technologies at Microsoft and Stuart Daughtridge, Chairman of the Digital Intermediate Frequency Interoperability Consortium (DIFI) are all actively taking part in the digital transformation of the satellite ground architecture and have insight to where standards can play a role. Lt. Col. Thompson speaks about the necessity to transition between military and commercial space and ground systems independently at the speed of need, which is underpinned by standards.  Hilburn and Daughtridge discuss the challenges of VITA 49, a packet-based protocol to convey digitized signal data and metadata that plays an essential part in standardizing the underlying plumbing for interoperability at the IF transport layer. DIFI, a consortium created under the auspices of The IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization (ISTO), is also addressed as it is was formed to help enable the digital transformation of the entire spectrum of the satellite industry.