At last week’s UK Space Conference 2017 in Manchester, UK, Livewire Digital demonstrated its RazorLink® Smart Networking proposition. The company was recently the winner of an Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme contract.

This is the European Space Agency‘s (ESA’s) long-running, large-scale programme designed to support the development of advanced satellite communications (satcom) products and services.

The funding will reportedly enable Livewire Digital to accelerate the development of its Software Defined Networking (SDN) technology used to bond 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, DSL and satellite to increase the available bandwidth and enable users to seamlessly transition between fixed, cellular and satellite services, without the need to reconfigure equipment or change applications.

Development will include enhancements to the protocols, scaling for Software as a Service (SaaS) and Cloud service offerings and integration with backend infrastructure to facilitate deployment in telecom operators’ networks.

The activity, which is supported by ESA’s UK Delegation has commenced following a successful negotiation meeting in Noordwijk on March 14 and the work will be completed by the end of Q1, 2019.

Commenting on its significance, Tristan Wood, managing director, Livewire Digital said, “Cellular and WiFi services are now ubiquitous and customers expect to be able to use their preferred operators. If a satellite service provider leaves the integration problem to the end user, they will become frustrated and it will become an opportunity for competitors”.

“By offering a RazorLink® value add service, a network operator can adapt quickly to this changing situation, provide a solution to their customers that seamlessly integrates their own range of services and, where appropriate, combines them with those offered by others. This adds significant value for the customer, makes their workflows faster, more efficient and more reliable across all services and, most importantly, retains their business”.

“The RazorLink® P2 proposition can offer this capability in the B2B space where a dedicated private RazorLink® service is made available to the customer. The RazorLink® P3 developments extend the proposition, offering the scalability for publicly accessible deployments, a framework for managing authenticated access and utilisation for statistics and billing,” Wood concluded.

Roberto Donadio, ESA technical officer, added that, “the product will provide users the benefits of ubiquitous coverage offered by satellite communications as well as interoperability with terrestrial networks”.

RazorLink® Smart Networking is available as software for Windows, Mac and Linux or as a “Black Box” device, similar to a router. Alternatively, the technology can be virtualised as Private or Cloud based endpoints.

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