ST Engineering iDirect
September 25, 2024

The Complementary Benefits Between 5G and Maritime

Posted in 5G, Mobility, Maritime
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5G and Maritime Benefits

Seamless, resilient, and high-performance – the ‘holy grail’ of networks. In everyday life on land, we are in quite good shape. But we who support the maritime industry know connectivity is still limited. 5G technology and satellite communications offer distinct benefits that, when coupled, offer to reshape industries that are at once global, distributed and remote.

Our head of mobility business development, Chris Insall, recently had the pleasure of participating with maritime industry partners to discuss synergies and opportunities at the 2nd 5G Impact in Maritime Connectivity virtual conference. You can listen to the recording here, to learn more about 5G and satellite communications complement one another:

5G and Maritime BenefitsHow 5G Benefits Satellite Communication

  1. Standards: 5G makes it easier for Satcom systems to integrate with terrestrial and mobile networks, offering consistent and reliable service. This is the basis of the new Non-Terrestrial Network standard that iDirect is actively assisting to develop.
  2. Scale: With 5G’s widespread deployment, satellite networks can scale up operations more efficiently, enabling satcom providers to expand their services at lower costs.
  3. Management/Orchestration: 5G’s potential for dynamic resource allocation and automation will enable effective end-to-end control of hybrid networks.
  4. Virtualization: Satcom providers can offer more customizable and agile services for improved security, scale and performance.

How Satellites Enhance 5G Networks

  1. Offload: Traffic from terrestrial 5G networks can be moved to satellite networks to reduce network congestion and make a smoother user experience.
  2. Distribution: Reach across vast and remote regions where terrestrial infrastructure may be impractical or too expensive.
  3. Mobility: Seamless handovers between networks regardless of the user’s location.
  4. Resilience: Added layers of back-up capability in times of natural disasters, outages, or disruptions in availability.
  5. Security: Secure data transmission over long distances for high levels of data privacy required for finance, defense, and government operations.

Watch: BS Group Virtual Conference: 2nd 5G impact in Maritime Connectivity