DIFI’S PlugFest 2024 Europe & Showcase a Success

Harwell UK event was global consortium’s first-ever test of ground segment interoperability in Europe

Compliance rates for equipment tested to new standard over 90% according to the Digital Intermediate Frequency (IF) Interoperability Consortium

NEW YORK and HARWELL, United Kingdom, July 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UK Satellite Applications Catapult’s Harwell Campus was the site of the second PlugFest of the Digital Intermediate Frequency Interoperability Consortium (DIFI) from 17 to 21 June. According to final reports from the four-day event, which included three days of testing by nine companies of version 1.1.0 and 1.2.0, and a Showcase Day open to the industry, there was 93% interoperability partial compliance and 75% full compliance to the standard.

DIFI members sent engineers to test DIFI compliance with their products. DIFI member companies included Arka, ETL Systems, Evertz, Keysight Technologies, Kratos, Lasting Software, ST Engineering, Safron and Welkin Sciences

On Thursday a Keynote by ESA’s Head of the Ground Segment Section of the Directorate of Connectivity and Secure Communications, Dr. Ilias Pangiotopoulos, noted that ESA has been seeking an adequate standard for digital ground. Dr. Pangiotopoulos add that he was thrilled that this process is underway and challenged the audience to do more, noting, “it (interoperability) is not happening fast enough.” Several people from ESA were in attendance.

The Keynote was followed by panel sessions, demonstrations, and discussions with the DIFI member companies who tested the interoperability of their products and demonstrated the power of the DIFI standard to achieve interoperability. The event was attended by representatives from ESA, UK Space, Eutelsat OneWeb, Airbus, Rivada, Satixfy, KSAT, and Intelsat..

“A Fantastic Environment”’

DIFI Chairman and Kratos’ Senior Vice President of Advanced Technology Stuart Daughtridge noted that among the benefits of the PlugFest was its ability to identify problems before customers experience them in the marketplace. He added that the success percentages were exceptionally high and that issues uncovered by testing would be resolved by DIFI’s Specifications Working Group.
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“The collegial atmosphere at Harwell was perfect for testing this standard. Competitors worked together for the benefit of the entire ground segment industry,” Daughtridge added. He said that there will be a version 1.2.1 of the specification to resolve the problems discovered during testing in June release in the next couple of months. DIFI said that it expects to issue version 1.3 by the end of this year.

Simon Swift, Engineering Director for Digital Technologies with ETL Systems, the host organization for the event, added that companies were pleased that the PlugFest had been brought to Europe and cited the PlugFest as “a fantastic, creative environment and we look forward to the next one.”

For more information on the results of DIFI PlugFest 2024 Europe email plugfest@dificonsortium.org

For information on membership in DIFI visit: www.dificonsortium.org or contact Stuart Daughtridge at Stuart.Daughtridge@kratosdefense.com

About DIFI

The Digital Intermediate Frequency (IF) Interoperability Consortium, or DIFI, has created a standard that enforces interoperability on digital IF/RF technology. Digital IF was developed to overcome the limitations of analog systems but, today, vendor lock-in prevents it from delivering seamless interoperability and severely limits its adoption. A truly interoperable digital IF, on the other hand, will enable transformation to a virtualized ground segment, reducing the total cost of ownership and significantly boosting network and terminal agility and scalability. Compliance with the DIFI standard will ensure that satellite ground segments can seamlessly adapt to rapidly changing space-layer payloads, orbits, and constellations. Ultimately, DIFI promises to elevate the resilience, performance, and capabilities of satellite networks and enable a digital transformation that integrates satellites seamlessly into the larger telecom, IT and GIS markets.

Contact:
Joni Sterlacci, Sr. Program Manager, j.sterlacci@ieee.org