Better 5G for rural markets coming: Hughes verifies satellite backhaul with the Jupiter System
Hughes Network Systems, a satellite and multi-transport technologies and networks solutions provider, successfully tested 5G satellite backhaul with the company’s Jupiter System ground platform. The test validated the compatibility of the Hughes technology with the 5G open radio access network systems. The end result is that one of the most widely deployed ground systems for satellite networks can be used to help connect remote areas with advanced 5G services.
“These interoperability tests confirm the suitability and ease of employing the JUPITER System for 5G cellular backhaul,” said Bhanu Durvasula, vice president, international division at Hughes. “We’ve built our ground platform to be future-proof, so customers have a roadmap to transition from LTE traffic today to 5G tomorrow, with the ease of a software update.”
In rural areas, a lack of fiber and microwave services to support the backhaul links for 5G base station locations has been a constraint on service growth even with growing demand for 5G communication networks. To service these areas, mobile operators require low-cost and efficient solutions that do not depend on the infrastructure and terrain. Satellite networks are a solution to this challenge.
Hughes tested 5G satellite backhaul with the Jupiter system because several mobile network operators use Jupiter system equipment to support thousands of backhaul sites for 2G, 3G, and LTE traffic. For the testing, Hughes engineers connected 5G smartphones to the internet with Jupiter System infrastructure, including a very small aperture terminal (VSAT), gateway, and high throughput satellite.
The testing was conducted on the 5G O-RAN compliant system from COMSovereign, a U.S.-based development of 4G LTE advanced and 5G communication networks. This system is also currently being used by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for demonstrating 5G systems.
Hughes says the Jupiter System is an economical solution for satellite bandwidth utilization, especially when the traffic is dynamically shared among multiple sites. Due to the use of time-division multiplexing and time division multiple access, the platform can be used for satellite backhaul, which has a low TCO and is a scalable technology.
“We look forward to potential opportunities to work with Hughes and to assist the entire satellite communications industry in harnessing state-of-the-art 5G and beyond technology,” said Dr Dustin McIntire, CTO of COMSovereign. “Satellite and mobile operators can deploy our 5G solution on their existing hardware without disrupting their architectures, along with the excellent quality of experience and maximum utilization of available bandwidth.”
According to Hughes, the Jupiter system is a widely used ground platform with over 75 satellites to provide high-throughput implementations in satellite internet, enterprise networking, Wi-Fi hotspots and cellular backhaul.
Article Topics
5G | backhaul | ground platform | Hughes Network Systems | Jupiter System | satellite
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