As its optical communications technology project clocks up six years in operation and looks to build optical links between satellites and datacentres as the race to put artificial intelligence (AI) compute in orbit heats up, NTT has announced a collaboration with Safran Data Systems to take its Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) technology into Safran’s optical ground stations.
Driving IOWN is the expectation that AI-driven datacentre capacity will grow between two and six times over the next five years. And as AI capacity has soared, network infrastructure is constantly having to adapt to a multitude of external pressures and unprecedented strains. The result is that keeping pace with the next wave of AI growth will require new long-haul networks to enable the rapid scaling of capacity needs in both existing and emerging enterprise setups.
This next generation of networks will have to keep pace with new fibre buildouts and AI datacentre sites, offering extended network capillarity – using short-range radio-access technologies to provide local connectivity to things and devices – and greater overall capacity.
As a result, IOWN was created to meet the growing needs of the hyper-connected business world of the future, offering a future global communications infrastructure capable of enabling ultra-high-speed, high-capacity internet services. At its heart is NTT’s All Photonics Network (APN) infrastructure, which is being designed to enable high-capacity, low-latency and low-power consumption communications through end-to-end optical connections without converting optical signals into electrical signals.
IOWN and the APN will also aim to address the almost exponential and commensurate rise in energy consumption due to the vast amounts of compute power required by future applications, in particular large language model (LLM) use cases. In its mission, NTT is being supported by the likes of Ericsson, Nokia, Sony, Ciena, Intel, Nvidia, Microsoft, Orange, Telefónica and Google.
Safran DS has a track record in space communications systems – including satellite ground stations, tracking antennas, and TT&C and high data rate reception modems – and has developed a complete portfolio of optical ground stations for low Earth orbit (LEO), medium Earth orbit (MEO) and geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) applications called IRIS OGS.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) between NTT and space tech firm Safran DS will explore the possibility of a strategic collaboration aimed at realising a next-generation optical communication infrastructure that connects various satellites, ranging from LEO to GEO, with the ground.
Based on this MoU, the two companies will investigate the integration of NTT’s digital coherent technology and network control technology into Safran DS’s optical ground stations for optical connections between satellite networks and ground-based data infrastructure, as well as their connection to a ground-based APN. Furthermore, they will examine the applicability of these optical ground stations to multi-orbit satellite networks.
The two companies have begun by establishing communications capabilities between LEO satellites and optical ground stations, and will proceed in stages with the technological development of a next-generation optical communication infrastructure that integrates multi-orbit satellite networks with terrestrial networks.
Furthermore, by connecting selected optical ground stations to nearby datacentres via APN, they will look to establish a future space data distribution infrastructure that seamlessly connects satellites, optical ground stations and terrestrial data networks via optical communication.
Future developments will see NTT looking to realise a space data distribution infrastructure that integrates multi-orbit satellite networks with IOWN. This will be done under its space business brand NTT C89 and will promote the creation of new services that integrate space and Earth, as well as the expansion of business opportunities.
