LUXEMBOURGg – SES today announced Gilat and ST Engineering iDirect as its latest technology partners who will be developing the core infrastructure modem platforms for O3b mPOWER, SES's ground-breaking non-geostationary-satellite orbit (NGSO) communications system.

Gilat and ST Engineering iDirect were selected based on their next-generation modem technologies. Featuring open architectures with a path to full virtualisation, the modems will interface with SES's differentiated Adaptive Resource Control (ARC) capability and leverage SES's use of the Open Networking Automation Platform (ONAP) standard. The combination of this and other technologies will give SES the ability to dynamically control and optimise the entire O3b mPOWER system across space and ground infrastructure, enabling the efficient delivery of low-latency and high-throughput satellite-based data services that can be truly customised to fit specific connectivity requirements on land, at sea or in the air anywhere in the world.

O3b mPOWER is SES's next-generation medium Earth orbit (MEO) communications system. It is currently under construction and on track for launch in 2021. The high-throughput satellites, as well as automated and intelligence-powered ground infrastructure, will deliver low-latency managed services from hundreds of Mbps up to multiple Gbps.

Focused on making satellites a seamless part of global network solutions, SES has been steadily expanding its O3b mPOWER partner ecosystem. In addition to Gilat and ST Engineering iDirect, SES has also announced O3b mPOWER partnerships with SpaceX for launches, ALCAN, Isotropic Systems and Viasat for customer edge terminals, Amdocs for NFV technology, Kythera Space Solutions for the ARC software, Microsoft for gateways, and IBM and Microsoft for cloud connectivity.

SES