Photo: NASA

Viasat’s United Kingdom subsidiary was selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to conduct a study on to evaluate a multi-layered satellite communications system. The study, which Viasat announced Tuesday, will evaluate market segments and technical aspects of networks that span Geostationary Orbit (GEO), Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO), Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), High Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS), as well as include various frequency bands, satellite operators and network designs.

The study will explore a system design that supports current and future satellite services, increased spectral efficiency, and interoperability. Viasat will assess the current market and technologies, develop system requirements and trade-off exercises, modeling and simulation, further analyses and a future roadmap. This research program is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2023.

“We are excited to collaborate with ESA on this research project to further the collective understanding of multi-layered networks and how they can increase capability, resilience, and performance for end-users across commercial and government,” said John Reeves, managing director of Viasat UK. “As a satcom provider serving multiple markets, we see tremendous potential in using multi-layered space networks for different sectors and mission use cases.”