Twenty years ago, a telecommunications executive said the company’s ultimate goal was to reduce the operational staff for its global network to one man and one dog. The man’s job was to feed the dog. The dog’s job was to bite the man if he tried to make any adjustments to the network. Although the executive was joking, the message was clear: The integration of disparate systems combined with the automation of complicated tasks would reduce manpower, increase uptime and enhance customer satisfaction.

Fast forward 20 years and those objectives are becoming reality. The rapid consolidation of the satellite industry has resulted in fewer operators flying larger fleets comprised of an assorted mix of spacecraft vintages and manufacturers. Advanced telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C) systems are helping satellite operators do more with less people and are improving both the bottom line and operational efficiencies.

It is not clear when the consolidation of the commercial communications satellite industry will end, but what is clear is that large operators now count their spacecraft by the dozen instead of in single digits. The size and complexities of the newly merged fleets are by far the largest market driver for TT&C systems, and the senior management teams of these companies are looking to drive results to the bottom line. Advanced TT&C systems will be at the fore, reducing operational manpower and increasing profits. The benefits of new features developed for larger operators will ultimately trickle down to smaller operators, thereby enhancing their performance as well.

Multiple Options

Satellite operations managers face a complicated world of TT&C choices today, with hardware and software vendors as well as system integrators offering various types of systems. In addition, satellite manufacturers routinely bundle a ground control system with a new satellite. While it may seem relatively simple to operate a satellite with today’s powerful computer systems, everything is not as straightforward as it may appear.

As soon as a payload is launched, it is frozen in time. That may mean interfacing with computer hardware designed in the 1980s. The computers and operating software at the ground station often are stuck in a time warp as well since many operators are reluctant to upgrade computing platforms. They tend to find reasons not to upgrade, such as: “This satellite only has two more years of useful life so we aren’t going to upgrade anything.” Quite often, the satellite that was expected to go away in several years lives far beyond end-of-life predictions and the operator has to deal with an aging computer platform.

“In the old days, satellite manufacturers sold their own ground control systems,” says Mark Schmitt, director of business development at Lanham, Md.-based Integral Systems, a provider of TT&C systems with 2007 revenues projected to exceed $100 million. “Now operators want a TT&C system that will support any of their satellites.” Founded in 1982, Integral historically has offered command and control software under its Epoch IPS software suite that can control every type of satellite platform in the industry.

“Large operators want to consolidate their software packages down to one or two to control satellites of different models and vendors,” says Paul Blanchard, product manager for L-3 Telemetry-West of San Diego, which offers its InControl TT&C systems and also provides systems to the U.S. military. “Our clients want the ground system for every satellite to look alike and act alike. There are business and operational reasons for doing so. … In the past, the traditional paradigm has been one operator assigned to one satellite,” says Blanchard. “That has changed and it made possible for operators to fly more than one bird at a time. Inmarsat is a good example. During the evening shift, one of their operators is responsible for 11 satellites.”

Blanchard points out that Inmarsat does not do station keeping or any other complicated procedures during times with limited staff, but “operational staffing costs are huge,” he says. “Consider the savings if you could reduce three employees per shift plus the extra operators needed for weekend coverage. Who wouldn’t want to take that number to the bottom line? There is no way our clients could have done this in the old days. An operator would have simply been overwhelmed trying to do too many tasks. Automation allows us to be a force multiplier.”

The reason for this ease of transition with legacy systems or having a single operating system control spacecraft manufactured by multiple operators is that software integration is becoming much more prevalent in the TT&C world; much like hardware integration was twenty years ago, says Schmitt. “The different subsystems are being integrated so everyone on an operations team better understands what is happening. Integration speeds problem resolution.”

With all of the attention to software, operators are flexing their muscles when it comes to TT&C systems, says Blanchard. Operators like to limit their reliance on the number of third-party software vendors involved, preferring instead to buy a single license that covers all aspects of the ground system. The operators also are requiring platform independence and do not want TT&C vendors dictating what computing platform they have to use. Along with this, operators are demanding software that is both maintainable and sustainable, as the want to insure that the code they buy can be moved to new hardware in the future, preventing their investment from becoming obsolete.

These software advancements also make it easier for TT&C operators to introduce new functions to their systems, such as new interference detection and intervention tool Integral is integrating into its Epoch suite of software, says Schmitt. “Studies show that 90 percent of all interference on a satellite is caused by existing customers,” he says. “Being able to characterize the interferer allows the operators to identify the offender quickly through a database lookup and take action.

“One of our clients discovered two carriers sitting on top of one another and within minutes had quickly narrowed the list of potential interferers down to four,” he says. “Phone calls were made to each and the problem suddenly went away. Of course, no one admitted that they caused the problem, but the problem went away quickly after the calls were made. Integrating the interference detection and intervention tool into the TT&C system is very powerful.”

These additional services are becoming key differentiators for TT&C providers, as the consolidation wave shrinks the number of satellite operators — and the number of potential buyers of ground control systems — even while new offerings are coming onto the market. Throughout the last decade, Integral has expanded its offerings through acquisitions of SAT Corp., Newpoint Technologies, RT Logic and Lumistar and seen its primary business move from the commercial operators to the military market.

“Since we offered the first satellite command and control system built around a COTS [commercial off the shelf] product suite in 1992, almost every large aerospace contractor and satellite manufacturer has opted out of the commercial ground systems market,” says Pete Gaffney, executive vice president, new business and technology development at Integral. “They simply could not compete at our price point or match our multi-satellite operations capability. At the same time, our margins are among the best in the industry and this is a concrete sign that our business model is efficient and effective, which is what competition is all about. We will always see competitors come and go as they try to gain a foothold in the market and that doesn’t bother us. One of our best selling points to our customers is our longevity and financial strength.”

Operators Offering Services

Operating a single satellite or a fleet requires a TT&C system and staff, and at some point, many operators consider the classic build-versus-buy decision. The vast majority purchase commercially available TT&C systems, but several operators — large and small — have chosen to fly the satellites themselves. It could be the simple desire for control, or perhaps even national pride.

Intelsat, which operates the world’s largest communications satellite fleet, writes and supports its own TT&C systems. “We currently fly 52 Intelsat spacecraft, most of them using our Ground Network System (GNS),” says Thierry Guillemin, vice president of satellite engineering & operations. “Throughout a number of years we have integrated support for most types of satellite bus platforms made by the six leading satellite manufacturers into GNS.”

As an example of the robustness and power of GNS, Guillemin points to recent integration milestones that included transitioning seven legacy spacecraft from PanAmSat into the Intelsat system. Historically, PanAmSat used COTS software to fly its fleet. “By taking advantage of the automation GNS provides, we were able to add these satellites without adding a single operator,” he says. “Furthermore, our Long Beach Satellite Operations Center is the ‘hot back-up’ to the East Coast Satellite Operations Center in Washington, D.C. Now, both operations centers have fully redundant capabilities.”

The other alternative for satellite operators is to outsource the flight operations to another satellite company, and a number of small operators choose to hand over the reins to a larger operator that has the investment in TT&C facilities and staff. Intelsat provides a wide range of support services through its Satellite Related Services business unit. In addition to helping potential satellite operators with their initial business case — helping them navigate the regulatory environment and offering design services and construction oversight of the spacecraft — Intelsat sells the support of its global TT&C network to other operators for their launch missions as well as provides flight services.

Jennifer Blasko, director of satellite services at Intelsat, feels that offering both solutions provided the client the best of both worlds. Intelsat has seen a rise in the outsourcing of flight operations by third parties, and addition to its own fleet, Intelsat is operating seven third-party satellites and is adding five more to its list.

Canada’s Telesat flies 15 satellites, eight of which are owned by the company and seven by other operators, including WildBlue, Mobile Satellite Ventures, and XM Radio. A flexible and open TT&C system is required for such a large task, says Roger Tinley, vice president, space systems for Telesat, which uses OS/Comet from Harris Corp. to manage its constellation and finds the system has reduced manpower requirements.

“We wanted a platform that had a consistent look and feel, regardless of the satellite,” Tinley says. “This minimized the need for our operators to know more than one type of software, and it increased our operational efficiency. …Our [satellite operations] customers prefer to focus on their core business rather than learning how to fly satellites. We fly their satellites as if they were our own. They hire us for a number of reasons. We bring a tremendous amount of experience flying satellites and technical ability to the relationship. We also provide engineering and consulting services on an on-going basis. It is also less expensive for small companies to have Telesat fly their satellites because they can leverage Telesat’s existing staff and infrastructure and don’t have to replicate everything.”

 Tinley stresses that he wants Telesat’s staff, which works out of Telesat’s Satellite Control Center at the company’s Ottawa headquarters, to provide value. “Doing nuts and bolts activities to upgrade operating systems doesn’t add value,” he says. “That is best left to software integrators who can spread the cost over multiple clients. We bring value by integrating satellites into the TT&C system and adding automation to routine tasks. Our goal is to remove the chance for human error through a program of continual improvement.

The ability to fly multiple satellites of different manufacturers and vintages from a single TT&C system will drive profits to a satellite operator’s bottom line. The push to fully integrate the different subsystems within the ground control system will bring new levels of interoperability, enhance an operator’s ability to manage its fleet and improve customer satisfaction. Although satellite operators may never achieve the goal of one man and one dog, it is clear that system integration and automation is the way of the future.