← T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
Satellite IoT with Iridium.
00:27:44
Find out how Iridium allows IoT devices, like sensors and trackers, to communicate directly with satellites, bypassing terrestrial infrastructure.
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- [00:02]
A
You're listening to the N2K space network. Happy holidays from all of us at N2K Networks. We're taking some time to be with our families over the holidays, so in the meantime, we hope you enjoy this encore episode of T Deep Space. And we look forward to seeing you in 2026. Running a business comes with a lot of what ifs, but luckily, there's a simple answer to Shopify. It's the commerce platform behind millions of businesses, including Thrive Cosmetics and Momofuku. And it'll help you with everything you need, from website design and marketing to boosting sales and expanding operations. Shopify can get the job done and make your dream a reality. Turn those what ifs into sign up for your $1 per month trial at shopify.com specialoffer satellite IoT or Internet of Things, refers to the integration of satellite networks with small Internet of things devices, enabling connectivity and data exchange in remote and challenging environments. Now, this allows IoT devices like cameras or sensors or trackers and to communicate directly with satellites, bypassing terrestrial infrastructure or going directly to satellite when no terrestrial infrastructure is available. One organization that's offering up satellite IoT services like this around the globe is Iridium, here with me today to tell us more about what this fascinating technology makes possible. Welcome to T minus deep space from N2K Networks. I'm Maria Varmazis. Our guest today is Ian Itz, executive director of the Global IoT Line of Business at Iridium.
- [02:18]
B
My name is Ian Itz. I'm the executive director for the IoT Line of Business here at Iridium. And kind of the way that I started my journey in space was through a very small universal bus building company. And so they were building universal buses for the Navy and for the Air Force. And so I was looking for product management jobs coming out of college, and there just happened to be a space startup in the town that I was living in. We're not too far outside of the D.C. region. And so there's obviously a lot of tech here, a lot of government work. And so that was kind of my entry. And so I was working on course sun sensors and star trackers and things that satellites need to kind of keep their navigation and their orientation. And so from there, that was kind of my leapfrog into satellite. And so I learned obviously a lot about the industry and started learning more about carriers and the commercial side of the business. And so I started to look at who are the big kind of satellite carriers in what we call this space and looked at globalstar and looked at Iridium and I actually ended up working a little bit for Global Star. I worked for one of their largest distributors for a bit, but always wanted to be at Iridium. That was always kind of the seal of excellence for me in terms of what I was into, which was very small devices, mobile devices, IoT really, that's kind of where I kind of gravitated towards that. And Iridium kind of had all the pieces right. They had a great constellation. They did small devices. They're very reliable in terms of the product. And so I'm always aspired to be part of the Iridium team. I had a friend, an engineer that actually came to Iridium about a year before I did. He said, hey, they're looking for product managers over here. Why don't you put an application in? And I said, this is a great opportunity for me. And so that was kind of how I started here at Iridium. So kind of continued on and became a product manager and then slowly learned the business here. Did some BD work for a couple years and now I'm fully running the entire IoT line of business here at Iridium.
- [04:20]
A
Thank you for sharing your journey with me. I love hearing people's stories because they're all so different and I find them just really fascinating. So thank you. So, yeah, we are here to talk about the IoT line of business that Iridium has. So maybe we can just set the scene a bit first about what it kind of looks like, what IoT and satellite connectivity together are enabling. Let's start there.
- [04:40]
B
Yeah, absolutely. So the way that I kind of look at IoT is a little bit of what I described earlier, which is small devices that are sending small chunks of data. Now that obviously has a variety of different meanings for different folks. IoT could be big chunks of data and lots of information passing back and forth. But when we kind of marry the two IOT and satellite, what we're really looking at is smaller pieces of data because that's the most efficient way to get that across on the network. And so from our perspective, IoT is typically small devices with small antennas. In a lot of cases they can be carried by a human, so by an individual, or they're just getting environmental data from wherever they're at. So it could be tracking an asset, it could be a sensor in a farm measuring the amount of water in the soil. It could be buoys in the ocean that are measuring ocean current salinity, early warning, tsunami detection. So really, IOT is kind of all encompassing in terms of the way that we think about it, we're really applying the fundamentals of IoT to basically any application that's out there today on the terrestrial network. We complement it on the satellite side. So we're really kind of that backup link in a lot of cases. But in many cases for IoT specifically, we are the primary comms. We are operating in locations where terrestrial coverage just simply isn't available. And so our customers look to us to provide, again, kind of rugged small devices that can be deployed anywhere on the globe. And that's kind of our forte. Right. We're really good at these global deployments because we have global connectivity and we've been doing this for some time now. And so when some of our larger enterprise customers come to us and say, hey, we would like to deploy this particular solution globally, that's really where Iridium shines. And so that's kind of the way that we see IOT in general. But small devices, small aperture antennas, low energy, and then typically satellite and cellular are complementary to each other. Right. We're bouncing back and forth from one network to another. But that's kind of my world in terms of IoT and satellite specifically.
- [06:53]
A
That's so fascinating what this all enables and the places that IoT is being used. I interviewed someone a while ago in Antarctica who's using it to great effect and it just blows my mind. And I know we think maybe, or I think about IOT as usually small devices sending small amounts of data, but that's changing, right? Where a lot of these devices are sending a lot more information now, lots more data being sent out. And I guess how, how do you all support that? Like what? That must be an interesting advancement for you.
- [07:22]
B
Yeah. So what we strive to do is obviously continue to support customers that have kind of those low data rates and those will always be, you know, a pertinent customer for us. You know, as I mentioned, the ground soil sensors, you know, those things don't go away. They'll be used for quite some time and they don't send that much data. But what we do obviously look at are some of these higher applications, as you mentioned. And so we look to develop kind of new technology kind of on a, on a cycle basis primarily. Right. So primarily we developed core modules that were built for low data transmissions, as we talked about, but we've got some new devices that have just come online that are now able to do more rich data sets. So they're able to send images, for example, they're able to send voice snippets and so these things are very part and parcel to what we do from a reliability perspective. A lot of the devices that work on the Iridium network are there for safety of life type applications. And so the ability to send kind of voice snippets and these images from remote locations kind of aids in those potential situations where somebody is injured. They're able to not only kind of send their location and maybe some text messaging about what's going on, but they're able to then send images about their environment, they're able to potentially talk if they're unable to use their hands. And so, yeah, I mean, we try to offer a variety of services on the network to cater to different IoT applications. And so, yeah, you'll see anything from, as I mentioned before, from our short burst data transceivers to our new IMT transceivers really kind of fit a variety of different use cases depending on what you're looking for. So, yeah, we tend to focus on new modules every couple of years and expand the capabilities with each one as we develop.
- [09:12]
A
That's really neat. And I have to ask the inevitable question that I think I ask in every interview nowadays is about AI, AI and cloud, how this all plays in. Because I know there's a lot of talk about what we're able to do at the edge now, what we're not able to do at the edge. But IoT always comes up in that conversation. So often I'm talking to cloud and AI folks asking them about IoT now I'm talking with an IoT person about cloud and edge. So tell me about what advancements you're seeing there and what that's enabling.
- [09:38]
B
Yeah, so cloud for us is extremely important. We integrated kind of AWS as our first foray, I want to say, five or six years ago now they were looking to expand their satellite connectivity options for their customers. And so we developed a partnership where we're now kind of fully hooked in from an IoT perspective. We're able to send data back and forth on all of our IoT platform devices through the AWS Cloud. And not just AWS. Right. I mean, we operate now with kind of any cloud infrastructure that you bring to the table. So from that perspective, cloud is of utmost importance. We just want to give customers options and so we don't charge more for it. It's really just an additional data delivery mechanism. And then obviously there's all of the other features that are built into the cloud, either IoT core or any of the other kind of security capabilities that are involved or any of the translation mechanisms that are in there. Our customers are more and more leveraging the cloud into their own internal applications. And it's really just by virtue of us offering that as a capability. Right. We're not doing a whole lot of application building. We're kind of really just leveraging what's already there and then providing the data through our standard interconnects. The AI thing is really interesting to me specifically because a lot of our customers have been doing this for quite some time. Right. As you probably know, sending data over a satellite link is going to be traditionally more expensive than when you send it over a cellular link. And so a lot of our customers, especially early on, when IOT was called M2M, those customers were figuring out how to optimize their data before sending it over the satellite link. Right. And so the advent of edge computing, edge technology, and then add on top of that machine learning and AI, and it gives these users kind of a lot more benefit in terms of being able to analyze their data, make decisions on the edge, and then really only pass the data that's critical or the most relevant to what they're doing. And so from that perspective, our customers have been early adopters of edge computing, ML and AI for some time. And so now that it's really kind of in everybody's face, it's kind of everywhere you go, it's really just kind of now being adopted by the mainstream. But I'd say that IoT and IoT and satellite specifically were kind of leading the front on a lot of those early technologies because it was necessary for them for a cost operation kind of environment.
- [12:01]
A
Yeah. Where do you, where do you see that going from that? Yeah, I was going to say it's by necessity it had to happen. And that's often when I have those conversations again with the other side of folks. It's like this was a complete necessity as the mother invention situation. I'm curious where you see things going, advancements in this area.
- [12:16]
B
Yeah, I mean, so for us, I mean, obviously as our satellite networks get, you know, more complex, there's the ability for us to integrate AI into, you know, our operations. Right. Not that we're doing a whole lot of that today, but, you know, as we look towards Iridium's future and as we look at the potential to fly more satellites, you could potentially see AI aiding in a lot of what we call the space infrastructure, all the things that are required for us to be able to run the network on the other side Obviously, we want to continue to foster the adoption of AI by our partners because it continues to be extremely relevant in their types of applications. The more energy that they can save and the more money they can save, frankly, on the data transmissions, the more powerful and the more adoption those devices are going to get. And so, yeah, we're really wanting to foster any of those applications that are leveraging AI by our partners. And that's one thing that we haven't necessarily talked about is Iridium has been extremely successful because of the way that we go to market. And that's primarily just by providing core technology so the modules and the network and then our customers go out and create these beautiful, amazing products on the backside, right? So we're not providing kind of a lot of terminals. We provide the core tech and really lean on our partners to create these awesome solutions, these awesome, powerful IoT solutions that are out in the market today. And so we wouldn't be here today, I wouldn't be here talking to you today if it wasn't for the innovation that our partners bring. And so we really do lean on them a lot. And it's really great what they're bringing to the table as we bring new products to market.
- [13:53]
A
Foreign. We'll be right back. Ford BlueCruise hands free highway driving takes the work out of being behind the wheel, allowing you to relax and reconnect while also staying in control. Enjoy the drive in BlueCruise enabled vehicles like the F150 Explorer and Mustang Mach E available feature on equipped vehicles Terms apply. Does not replace safe driving. See Ford.com BlueCruise for more details. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast Smart move. Being financially savvy Smart move. Another smart move having State Farm help you create a competitive price when you choose to bundle home and auto bundling. Just another way to save with a personal price plan like a good neighbor State Farm is there prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. I find that really fascinating what Iridium does because you all are really a backbone and that you do enable all these different people and organizations to figure out how to use what you all provide and then it just makes whole constellation. If I can use the space cliche of just different capabilities. It's quite amazing to watch. And something that I've been increasingly trying to learn more about is also the phrase is non terrestrial networks. And just again you guys are a huge Player in that, I mean, enabling all that and what that looks like and what that's enabling. And I'm just wondering, as part of the ecosystem that's building a non terrestrial network, like, how are these different pieces all sort of fitting together to work towards what's coming in Non terrestrial networks?
- [15:56]
B
Yeah, absolutely. I think the vision for the non terrestrial network is to offer a service that to the consumer doesn't look any different than what they've used today. Right. So you're outside of terrestrial coverage and whether it be your smartwatch or your phone or your vehicle or whatever it happens to be falls outside of terrestrial coverage. The transition to satellite and the use of satellite should be pretty deprecated from view from the customer. Right. If I can, for lack of a better term, they shouldn't know which network is providing the service underlying. They just want to know that Seamless. Right. They just want to be able to close the link, send the data. And so from that perspective, I think that's where we're headed. Right. What you'll end up seeing over time and how all these pieces fit together is really kind of that seamless experience from a data connectivity perspective. You've got devices that primarily live on cellular and that want to jump over to satellite and now they're doing the opposite, which is they're living potentially their entire lives on satellite and using cellular sometimes. And so again, I think what we drive or what we strive for is the ability to have customers again that see this kind of seamless experience and not necessarily know which satellite carrier they're operating on or that their device is actually on satellite. Right. So I think really what we're doing from an NTN perspective is moving towards a more standardized approach where any manufacturer of a chip or a module can now integrate Iridium into that same module without any additional cost. Right. And so that's really the benefit, and that's kind of where all these things fit together is along the standardization of the satellite networks within existing terrestrial networks. And that's really what's going to make everything kind of, as you mentioned, seamless, Maria, and ensure that that satellite is a connectivity piece that's integral to pretty much any IoT solution that's out there today.
- [17:59]
A
Very cool. Could you set the scene for me between broadband and narrowband when it comes to Iot? Because that's something I really just don't know much about.
- [18:05]
B
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, Maria, I think what we can kind of talk about is kind of this distinction between a lot of these different carriers that are coming online right now, right. I mean, we hear a lot in this space. Space is very hot right now. NTN is very hot right now. So you've got a few different players in this space. The one that we hear about the most is Starlink. Right. And Starlink is providing a very broadband centered service, right? So they're using bigger terminals, bigger antennas, and in a lot of cases those are fixed sites. But obviously Starlink has a lot of mobility plans and so they've got devices that obviously work from a mobility perspective. So what Starlink is providing is more of a broadband type of interface, right? They're providing video and gaming and Internet and all the things that you really want to do kind of at a high level. What we end up doing is providing more of a narrowband system. And so we are not providing big pipe data, we're not providing you with Internet. And that has a lot to do with the way the Constellation is set up and the types of satellites that we have and the spectrum that we operate in. Right. And so for us, we're considered a narrowband network. And the reason that is is because, number one, we're part of L band and L band has its own kind of benefits. And, and the most important benefit that we have from an L band perspective is that we're not susceptible to things like rain feed or the weather. Right. And so that's why Iridium typically gets used a lot from a, from a reliability perspective. Because even though we're not a huge pipe, we're not a huge, you know, bandwidth providing network we work in, in the most rugged environments. And so often what you'll see is you'll see us paired in tandem with a Starlink system, for example, right? So on a vessel, on a large vessel that's traversing the ocean, they'll oftentimes have a Starlink device on board that handles all of the crew entertainment. So the crew wants to be able to call home and the crew wants to be able to watch Netflix and surf the Internet. And so they've got that capability on the boat for the crew welfare and the livelihood of the crew that's working the boat. But then they've also got an Iridium component on board for the critical comms, right? So in the event that Starlink goes down or that they're in awful weather, which happens a lot in the ocean, they've got a backup link which is Iridium. And so even though we're not providing all of the crew calling and the Internet, we're providing the core technology that the captain needs to be able to continue operating the boat. So it's course and heading and speed and a little bit of weather and, you know, critical comms back and forth to wherever they're going. So for me, that's really the distinction between kind of this broadband and this narrowband. And again, in IoT, at least as I've experienced IoT, IoT tends to be more of a narrowband type of application. Right. Because again, we're not sending big chunks of data. Now, are there outliers and are there other applications that are sending much more vivid data? 100%. But in traditional kind of what I would call industrial iot, there's not much need for more than a narrowband pipe, which is what we provide.
- [21:10]
A
And so that's kind of how reliability though. Yeah, absolutely.
- [21:14]
B
Reliability above all for us. Right. And so we're not going to be that provider that you want to send video in HD from some region, not here in the US that's not us. Right. But if you want to send critical data, you want to send an SOS message, you want to send your lat long, you want to send a text about, hey, this is what's currently going on and be fully ensured that it's going to go out, then that's the network that you want. Right. And so from our perspective, that's kind of been our calling card always is this reliability above all. And the global coverage that you talked about earlier, Maria, those researchers or those folks that you talk to that were doing things in the North Pole or in Antarctica, that's typically only enabled by Iridium. Right. Because we have a polar orbit. So that means that our satellites are going over both poles and that enables us obviously to have connectivity there. And huge scientific community in those regions that rely on Iridium, both for personal communications, but also to get their information up and down from where they're at. And so, yeah, I mean, the distinction between narrowband I think is really just that is really how big is the pipe that the operator is offering you? And what I would say is that there's different characterizations for that. The bigger the pipe, the bigger the antenna you're going to need, the more energy that you need to be able to sustain that connection. Whereas on the other end with us, theoretically you've got smaller devices, smaller antennas, smaller energy, so they can live in the field for much longer on a battery powered device. And that's why we're so critical for personal communications and for critical comms is that ability to have a device that stays on in the field for multiple days at a time, can hit a transmission even if it's pouring rain. Those are the types of benefits that kind of Iridium provides. But I hope that kind of cleared up a little bit about the distinction between kind of the broadband and the narrowband side. A lot of it has to do again with kind of the satellites that are being flown, what spectrum you operate in and what orbit you're in. Right. So whether you're a LEO orbit, which is a low Earth orbit, or a geostationary orbit, which is a little bit higher up, all of those things play into the type of satellite network you're going to want to choose for Iot connectivity.
- [23:27]
A
Absolutely. Ian, I've been trying to learn more about this for the last two and a half years doing this job. You explained it better than I think anyone has. So I really. I'm not just saying that because I'm talking to you right now, like genuinely, that was probably the best explainer I've heard of that. So thank you for clarifying. A lot of things in my head that have been a little jumbled. So I really appreciate that. And yeah, it's Iridium gets name dropped all the time in interviews that I do with other people because it's just, it's. You all are ubiquitous in a good way. So it's, it's a really, it's, it's great to hear this explainer because it just again, helps me understand so much better. I want to make sure I know I've taken up a ton of your time and you've been so generous in your answers. If there's anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention that was a high priority for you guys to make sure you get out there, I want to give you the floor. If there's anything that you wanted to mention, it's over to you for that.
- [24:16]
B
Yeah, I mean, the only thing I'd mention is that we cater to the developer. Right. That's kind of as I talked about earlier, Maria. We couldn't be where we are today without kind of the expertise that our partners bring. And so one of the things that we try to do is be very developer friendly in terms of providing developer kits and the experience for those that are wanting to try satellite. It can seem quite daunting if you've never been part of a satellite project, but I assure you that it's extremely easy. For our latest module, which is the 9704, you can go out and buy a kit, you can receive that kit within a couple of days, and you can be transmitting and talking to a satellite within a matter of minutes of opening up. It's very open source. We publish everything on GitHub, and so we try to make everything extremely easy. And so what I would say is that for me especially, the proof is always in the pudding. If you're interested in learning more about Iridium, if you're interested in playing with the satellites and kind of getting a good understanding of how things work, go out and buy one of our kits, get on air and experience it for yourself. It's extremely easy. And like I said, we're pretty open in terms of the types of things you can plug into it. And so we try to provide that for our partners. And it's really kind of the first foray is these development kits. And so that's really what I would stress is come talk to us, come see us, buy a kit, experience what it's all about. And if you choose Iridium or not, at least you've had that experience in terms of understanding how our network operates.
- [25:43]
A
That's awesome. Ian, you've been a great guest. Thank you so much for explaining so many things to me that have been confused in my mind for quite some time. So you've been awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much, Maria.
- [25:54]
B
Thanks for having me. I certainly appreciate the opportunity and it's been a great conversation.
- [26:07]
A
That's it for T Minus Deep Space, brought to you by N2K CyberWire. We'd love to know what you think of this podcast. You can email us@spacen2k.com or submit the survey in the show notes. Your feedback ensures we deliver the information that keeps you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. N2K's senior producer is Alice Carruth. Our producer is Liz Stokes. We're mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Ibin. Peter Kielpe is our publisher, and I am your host, Maria Varmazes. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.
- [26:44]
B
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