The U.S. Government and Aalyria recently conducted the first demonstration of a key technology that enables two long-sought capabilities for civilian and defense purposes: Hybrid Space Architecture (HSA) and Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) concept. Both efforts seek to internetwork commercial and/or government communications-equipped assets – across land, air, sea, and space – to create mesh networks that are impossible to disable. Realizing HSA and CJADC2 enables secure, resilient, and low-latency data communications networks anywhere on the globe.
Working with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and other partners, Aalyria’s Spacetime network orchestration software platform was used to operate a multi-vendor, multi-operator, multi-orbit SATCOM network across secure Department of Defense (DoD) and multiple commercial provider locations. In real-time, Spacetime demonstrated self-healing reallocation of network resources and reconstitution of connectivity services in response to the unexpected loss of a satellite, introduction of jamming effects, outages to terrestrial fiber, and dynamic changes to end-to-end data rate, latency, and priority requirements.
Aalyria’s Spacetime demonstrated the ability to allocate network resources and task first-party network elements (e.g. government-owned and operated satellites and airborne mesh networks) while also orchestrating intelligent, proactive network switching and roaming across 3rd party (e.g. commercial) satellite services as a single software-defined network.
Held at the U.S. Naval Research Lab (NRL) in Washington, D.C., the four-hour event was attended by more than 150 distinguished individuals representing over 20 agencies across the U.S. Government and the DoD.
The demonstration was conducted using real-world, in-orbit, and ground-based fixed and mobile assets contributed and integrated in partnership with NRL, the European Space Agency (ESA), Comtech, Eutelsat OneWeb, Intelsat, and Viasat including tactical communications for the XVIII Airborne Corps during Exercise SCARLET DRAGON in a parallel real-time demonstration. In total, the demonstration included building a software-defined mesh network incorporating more than 630 satellites from three commercial satellite operators, with fixed and mobile ground-based terminals spread between four partner testbed sites across two continents. The network integrity was verified in real-time by NRL throughout the demonstration. This work is part of a contract awarded to Aalyria by DIU last year.
The timeline to field the demonstration network, including integration across all vendor and satellite network partners, was less than 60 days. Aalyria credits this speed to the Spacetime platform’s modular open systems approach and open-source APIs.
“The importance of this demonstration cannot be overstated,” said Aalyria’s founder and CEO Chris Taylor. “For the first time ever, Hybrid Space Architecture and CJADC2 capabilities have been demonstrated in all domains and orbits. The future of a fully interoperable networked capability that spans government, civilian, and commercial assets is here and available now.”
“It was an impressive event, showcasing TN/NTN network orchestration capabilities, and I am delighted that we could contribute from the 5G/6G Hub at ESA ECSAT,” said Antonio Franchi, Head of the Space for 5G/6G and Sustainable Connectivity program line for ESA. “I would like to thank the Aalyria team, and my team for their dedication – and without whom, we would not have been able to support this important demo.”
The demonstration of this next-generation capability was made possible by Aalryia’s Spacetime – the world’s most intelligent network routing and orchestration platform. Spacetime’s innovative digital twin technology enables it to look ahead in time and space to determine future motion, potential obstructions, data requirements, and more. Using this information, Spacetime makes predictive, intelligent decisions as to how a network should be composed in order to meet mission requirements. Through API integrations that are capable of communicating with any hardware, operating in any orbit, Spacetime sends instructions to re-task steerable beams or antennas and reroute network traffic to ensure continuous network connectivity, no matter the circumstance.
Since emerging from stealth last year, Aalyria has quickly received awards from and developed partnerships with a broad range of commercial and government players, including DIU, NRL, Comtech, the European Space Agency, Telesat, Intelsat, Airbus, Rivada Space.
Click here to learn about Aalyria’s Spacetime Network.
