PAGE CONTENTS
Objectives
The main objective of this project was to design and develop the technological core components of the Unified Communication Services Manager which can be tailored to individual operational scenarios and commercially exploited.
The more detailed project objectives were to:
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define, collect & consolidate User- and Provider-Side requirements
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define the system & software architecture and interfaces
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unification and harmonisation across providers
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intuitive and easy-to-use mission, service & order management
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design and implement the core components
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perform unit, system, integration and end-to-end tests
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outline the evolution of UCSM over mid- to long-term (2-10 years)
Challenges
UCSM is based on a preceding study in to the Pooling & Sharing of Secure SATCOM Services and the collective expertise in the consortium.
It addresses the following core challenges:
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unification of SATCOM industry offerings & provider interfaces
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survey and addressing of user needs (interface & services offered)
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matchmaking between
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communication needs and actual services
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user and provider(s)
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being flexible enough to address a broad set of operational scenarios and business needs
System Architecture
UCSM is a platform for a unified market and broker of SATCOM-centric services, which incorporates various providers through standardised interfaces, workflows and data.
The services available via UCSM can be based on commercial, user-supplied and (prospectively) national SATCOM resources and assets, with the focus being SATCOM-centric communication services, including
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the terrestrial distribution e.g. via teleports,
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provisioning of associated hard- and software,
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logistics, training and maintenance.
Architectural features:
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Tailorable system and software architecture to support future operational needs and requirements
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Distributed Services Architecture and “Cloud-Native” approach:
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high deployment flexibility, ranging from quasi-monolithic deployment to cloud-based (on-prem or even public)
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geographically distributed deployments with High Availability
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Project HW/platform as reference platform (COTS HW, Linux and other Open Source Solutions, Container + Orchestration)
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Platform/Infrastructure-independent Software/System => no vendor lock-in
Plan
The UCSM development project was an ARTES Technology Phase project and had a nominal duration of 24months. It was kicked off in 11/2019 and was executed in four distinct phases:
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an initial design activity,
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the user-centric design and implementation,
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the provider-centric design and implementation and
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the validation and verification.
In parallel, evolution of capabilities and plans for operationalisation were being worked on, in preparation for the further development and commercial exploitation.
The final review was held in 04/2023.
Current Status
The contract / development project is completed.
