TelcoForge had the opportunity to catch up with Shravan Gaddam, VP Engineering, CTO Office at ST Engineering iDirect, and Chinmoy Sabud, Senior Director and Head of Business Development Software Frameworks and Solutions at Capgemini, to talk about their collaborative work, standards-based, software-defined 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN), and the future of satellite convergence. Watch the video or read the transcript below.
Alex Lawrence: You recently signed a collaboration. How does this align with the broader industry push towards standards-based, software-defined 5G NTN? And what impact does that have on the industry?
Shravan: From the iDirect perspective, we want to be standards-compliant, especially with 3GPP specifications, with NTN coming in from Release 17 and going forward. The idea is to stick as close as possible to the standards, whether it’s 3GPP or O-RAN/Open RAN, with respect to disaggregated architectures.
That is where I guess what we bring in from iDirect is a perfect blend with what Capgemini brings from the L2 and L3 stack—where you want to bring the ground segment G-NodeB and eventually go into the regenerative part of it onto the onboard processing. From the market perspective, there’s strong demand for the use cases customers are asking for, and as a joint venture, we should be able to deliver.
Chinmoy: I absolutely agree with Shravan. Essentially, our collaboration is very much complementary. The leadership of ST Engineering iDirect in satellite communications is commendable. Products like Velocity and Intuition have already proven their value in satellite communications. Now, SATCOM and Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) are converging with terrestrial communications.
Within Capgemini, we have been heavily invested in standards-driven software for the last 30 years. We have proven our solutions on terrestrial networks, and over the last two years, we have matured them for NTNs as well. Mass adoption happens when solutions are standards-based. The more it is standard-driven, the more adoption we expect the market will take.
Shravan: I’ll add that once we adhere to standards and specifications, there isn’t vendor lock-in for operators. They should be able to switch between vendors. That helps with disaggregated architecture, where you compartmentalise the components between what you put on the ground and what you put on board.
Chinmoy: Beyond that, there is synergy in how the technology is built. Intuition is already a future-proof, cloud-native architecture. The 5G solutions we are developing are also cloud-native and AI-native. We see a lot of synergy in the offerings, allowing us to join hands and create unique solutions for this overall convergence.
Alex Lawrence: You may have already addressed this a bit, but what unique strengths do you feel each partner brings to the table?
Shravan: iDirect has traditionally been on the SATCOM side. With 25+ years of experience, we bring enhancements and differentiators across the stack, whether on the scheduler side or in GNSS resilience. We add value as a ground segment provider with modems on both the UT side and the network side. We take Capgemini’s expertise and package it in a way that is more efficient and consumable for the market.
Chinmoy: We are bringing mature 5G, NB-IoT, and NR-related software that is flexible to work with transparent or regenerative architectures for various constellations, whether LEO or GEO. Importantly, we help with the fitment of cloud-native architecture and autonomous network concepts. These frameworks are relevant in the convergence area, be it SATCOM or terrestrial.
Shravan: On the Intuition platform, we bring architecture value. We had multiple platforms supporting different waveforms and orbits; now we are getting the “best of breed” from all of those to build the Intuition platform. We are bringing telco background concepts such as auto-scaling and “pay as you grow” into the SATCOM side. You don’t have to buy capacity upfront; you can scale as you grow.
Alex Lawrence: Which industries and use cases are going to benefit the most from this collaboration?
Chinmoy: We are solving a few key problems through this convergence. First, mission-critical connectivity—where communication is absolutely needed and cannot be missed. Second, we are eliminating coverage gaps in pocket geographies with no coverage today. Third is redundancy and resilience.
Industries that need ubiquitous connectivity will benefit most: maritime, aviation, oil and gas, and mining in difficult terrains. From a resiliency perspective, public safety and disaster recovery will benefit if there is a network failure, as this creates an alternative redundant network.
Shravan: The ‘network of networks’ is key—disaster recovery and backhaul are major use cases. Enterprise use cases in maritime and aero are areas we want to go after.
Then there is the ecosystem involving telcos, SATCOM operators, and vendors. We see roaming between telcos and SATCOM providers becoming a reality. For example, if a terminal is part of one SATCOM provider, it cannot currently move to another network. This mobility between TN and NTN networks will become a reality, likely within a two- to three-year window.
