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Dana Cohen Mizrahi , Product Marketing
Manager , Sony Semiconductor Israel including that of an emergency communication network or offloading traffic from the terrestrial networks during peak times . Industries such as automotive , energy infrastructure , agriculture , maritime , railway , and more , can have the option to enjoy true global communication .
Mountain climbers , for example , often move from connected areas to areas outside of cellular coverage . Extreme sports require having a connected device in the event of an emergency , and hybrid cellular , non-terrestrial network-connected devices can help in those situations .
Remote installations are also in need of satellite IoT . Maritime shipments , offshore oil rigs , and trains typically find themselves outside of cellular range . Non-terrestrial networks can provide a reliable connection for monitoring and controlling these installations , even in remote locations .
Over the past few years , we have seen a number of new players in the space , many of whom are developing their own technology . 3GPP developed standards to enable the market to grow , for both broadband non-terrestrial network and also for IoTnon-terrestrial network- LTE-M and NB-IoT . 3GPP has started with study items in releases 15 and 16 , and included a work item starting in release 17 .
Satellite architectures
According to IoT Analytics , the total number of satellite IoT subscribers reached 5.1 million in 2021 . It is forecast to grow at a 22 % CAGR between 2021 – 2026 , and is expected to reach 13.5 million subscribers by 2026 .
Non-terrestrial networks , are comprised of satellites : Geostationary Equatorial Orbit , GEO ; Medium-Earth Orbit , MEO ; Low-Earth Orbit , LEO ; as well as highaltitude platform systems , HAPS , which include unmanned airships or airplanes above 20 km ; and unmanned aerial systems , UAS or drones .
All satellite systems used to provide IoT , machine to machine communication services are based on either GEO or LEO satellites . GEO constellations are more associated with legacy satellite operators , while LEO satellite services are provided by a combination of established and emerging satellite operators .
LEO constellations are becoming the preferred option for satellite operators that offer IoT , machine to machine connectivity services . It offers far quicker and cheaper network building and deployment , a better link budget , and higher availability of orbit paths . Additionally , LEO offers better latency than GEO due to the shorter distance to Earth .
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