Kymeta reports demonstrating four concurrent beams in Ku- and Ka-band frequencies with a single antenna aperture. Photo: Kymeta

Kymeta has reported a multi-band antenna demonstration that the company says paves the way for interoperability across satellite networks in different bands and different orbits. 

Kymeta CEO Rick Bergman spoke with Via Satellite about the demonstration, in which a prototype of a single aperture antenna was able to transmit and receive both Ka-band and Ku-band beams simultaneously. The demonstration took place in a lab environment on April 22. 

Bergman said this demonstration fits into the Redmond, Washington-based company’s original vision to pursue satellite terminals using metamaterials as a different approach than the classic phased array antenna. Kymeta tasked a dedicated team with working toward this milestone around a year ago. 

“It’s been clear for years now, we’ve talked about this with customers and governments. They often call this the ‘holy grail’ because everybody wants it, but nobody has been able to get there,” Bergman said. “We were really thrilled at the end of April to be able to transmit four simultaneous streams at the same time.” 

The company explained that its multi-band antenna aperture consists of four, interleaved sub-arrays – Ku-band transmit, Ku- receive, Ka- transmit, and Ka- receive. The antenna is able to provide for “simultaneous and independently controlled Ku- and Ka-band full duplex beams from its metamaterials surface,” and uses AI algorithms for intelligent traffic routing. 

Kymeta’s products up until this point are Ku-band only, and Bergman points to the possibilities this capability opens up as Ka-band Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations are coming online. Both Amazon Kuiper and Telesat Lightspeed are Ka-band constellations. 

Bergman said that metamaterials allow the antenna to switch back and forth between LEO and Geostationary Orbit (GEO), for multi-band, multi-orbit communications.

“Satellite communications today are very siloed. You have a Starlink or you have OneWeb. The promise is to be able to seamlessly roam and give that ultimate capability to the end user, whether it’s in the military context or enterprise,” Bergman said. “No matter where you are in the world, you can get high bandwidth communications that are very resilient. If one network isn’t working for whatever reason, whether it’s jamming or weather issues, cyber attack — you can seamlessly switch to another network.”

Intelsat CTO Bruno Fromont commented that this capability can “change the game” in satcom. 

“Transformative technology milestones like this spark a catalytic shift across an entire landscape. Kymeta’s ability to unify Ku- and Ka- band connections through a single mobile antenna is a foundational leap toward combined satellite networks, making communication as seamless and automatic as the cellular networks we use every day,” Fromont commented in a release. 

Kymeta points to the U.S. Space Force satcom vision whitepaper released in 2020 that outlined the requirement to support multi-bands, orbits, waveforms and a “network of networks to support responsive and agile operations.”

“You can start to see why the military around the world is so interested in this. LEO is really critical, but a lot of the secure, sovereign military satellites are in GEO. You can get the latency and bandwidth on one, but the security on the other. If one gets jammed, you can flip over to another one. It gives you the ultimate flexibility going forward,” Bergman said. 

He also said this type of capability opens up potential for autonomous operations and edge computing. As autonomous vehicles are subject to jamming and interference, multiple frequencies can provide more options in instances of jamming. 

For commercial use cases, Bergman describes Kymeta as a “premium” supplier, and doesn’t think this type of application goes head-to-head with Starlink. 

“If you need a single network, high bandwidth, Starlink works perfectly fine. It’s the use cases where you want to have that flexibility of switching, where SWAP is important. Those are the commercial or enterprise cases that we would target,” he said. 

Now, Bergman said, Kymeta will focus on implementing this technology into a product. He said there is “no shortage of interest and no shortage of ideas,” and Kymeta will work with customers and partners to refine the specific product.