Towards SDN/NFV-enabled satellite networks

The telecom community is during the last years witnessing a paradigm shift towards the virtualisation/ "softwarisation" of the network infrastructure, mostly driven by the concepts of software defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualisation (NFV). At the same time, satellite telecommunication technologies, although rapidly advancing in various fields, have not so far adequately followed this trend. The paper investigates the applicability of SDN and NFV technologies to satcom platforms and determines the benefits and the challenges associated with the integration of satellite infrastructures into future software-based networks. To that end, it identifies specific use cases which clearly benefit from the softwarisation of the satcom network and proposes a functional architecture for federated satellite-terrestrial software-based networks. The architecture is implemented in a lab environment which is used to validate some of the proposed use cases. Furthermore, a techno-economic analysis is conducted, which presents clear economic benefits via the introduction of SDN and NFV in the satcom ecosystem.