LeoLabs has signed a partnership agreement with Aalyria wherein the firms will address space awareness challenges for complex communications networks that span land, sea, air, and space — this agreement marks the start of their collaboration on relevant contract opportunities, including with the United States Department of Defense (DoD).
Aalyria will integrate LeoLabs’ growing commercially owned orbital database into Spacetime, Aalyria’s software platform for orchestrating networks of ground stations, aircraft, satellites, ships, and urban meshes. LeoLabs will serve as a “source of truth” for Aalyria to model the locations of objects in LEO for mission planning and operations purposes. This is crucial for customers to maintain and secure their communications networks which may experience interference from other objects on-orbit.
By layering LeoLabs’ operational safety data and services onto Aalyria’s existing network solutions, operators will have a single point of access for real-time information and analysis for critical decision-making. This partnership serves the growing need for interoperability with legacy, hybrid space, 5G NTN and FutureG network architectures.
“Communications infrastructure is critical to our daily lives and increasingly linked across multiple domains, including space. That’s why we’re proud to partner with Aalyria and address the challenges faced by both commercial and government-owned communications networks. By layering our space safety services with Aalyria’s network orchestration solutions, we hope to ensure that the growing hybrid communication networks are secured in today’s complex, crowded, and contentious space domain.” — LeoLabs Chief Executive Officer Dan Ceperley
“The future of communications are dynamic, hybrid networks that can deliver high-speed, secure, and reliable connectivity anywhere and anytime. LeoLabs and Aalyria share this vision, and we’re excited to collaborate with them to make it a reality.” — Chris Taylor, CEO of Aalyria
Additionally, Aalyria has won a contract with ESA to build an O-RAN compliant platform for 5G/6G NTN connectivity.
Aalyria has been awarded a development contract with the European Space Agency (ESA), supported by the UK Space Agency (UKSA), to help unlock new 5G/6G Terrestrial (TN) and Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) capabilities.
The project aims to develop a first-of-its-kind, O-RAN compliant orchestration system that can stitch together disparate connectivity assets to form highly heterogeneous networks that span land, sea, air, and space to deliver new NTN connectivity features based on emerging 5G-Advanced and 6G standards. Representing the significance of the collaboration and a commitment to 5G TN/NTN services, Aalyria has also established a European entity of its business with headquarters in London.
Aalyria’s work with ESA is focused on enabling interoperability within and among existing and future TN/NTNs, such as those leveraging satellites, HAPS, and space-based assets. Stitching together these assets has proven difficult in the past because, as opposed to fixed, terrestrial ones, non-terrestrial assets are in constant motion relative to the Earth, one another, and potential users – and have traditionally relied on bespoke orchestration systems that are not built for interoperability.
Aalyria is solving this problem with its Spacetime platform – an advanced network orchestration capability that can create, manage, and remedy mesh communications networks that span any domain — land, sea, air, and space — across any number of communications-equipped assets, utilizing any radio frequency band or optical wavelength. Spacetime considers all factors that could impact the ability of any asset to close a connection and automatically reroutes connections in real-time to maintain optimal connectivity across the entire network.
Spacetime is a production-validated platform, having orchestrated complex HAPS networks on Google’s Project Loon in Kenya and Peru. In recent months, Aalyria has struck partnerships with Telesat, Intelsat and Rivada Space Networks (see above) to use the Spacetime platform.
Working with ESA, Aalyria will adapt Spacetime to develop a novel TN/NTN-capable Service Management & Orchestration platform and make it available to partners at ESA’s ECSAT 5G/6G Hub in Harwell, United Kingdom. Aalyria and ESA will work to identify, implement, and test significant enhancements to the O-RAN Alliance’s standardized Radio Access Network management interfaces (O1, A1, E2) to support future use cases, such as at-sea connectivity; roaming between satellite and terrestrial assets; in-flight connectivity; connected vehicles; network management and optimization; and more.
In addition to the announcement, Aalyria has also established Aalyria UK – Aalyria’s global 5G TN/NTN headquarters in London. With a growing team of full-time staff now located in the United Kingdom, this new entity represents a significant expansion of Aalyria’s global presence and signifies the company’s commitment to strengthening ties within the United Kingdom’s thriving space industry.
Aalyria UK will serve as a hub for innovation, collaboration, and the development of world-class technologies, as the company works to establish Europe as the center of its 5G TN/NTN business. Furthermore, Aalyria UK will catalyze competition and sustainability in the UK and throughout the European continent.
“This achievement marks a significant milestone in Aalyria’s journey towards reshaping the future of space communications to create a new universal connectivity fabric. Our collaboration with the European Space Agency is a testament to our dedication to pushing the boundaries of what is possible with 5G NTN connectivity. We are also excited to introduce Aalyria UK, which will serve as a strategic hub for our operations in the United Kingdom, fostering new partnerships and driving innovation in the region.” — Aalyria CEO Chris Taylor
“Collaborations with industrial partners, like this one with Aalyria, play a pivotal role in ESA’s efforts to advance the digital transformation of industry and society, thanks to the integration of 5G/6G Terrestrial and Non-Terrestrial Networks. Establishing seamless ubiquitous and resilient connectivity is vital in the context of emerging technologies. The platform envisioned under this development contract could be a game-changing asset for telecommunications systems, with substantial benefits for stakeholders.” — Antonio Franchi, Head of Space for 5G and 6G Strategic Program at ESA