ESA funds €1.5m automated satellite backup for subsea cables
Author: Joe Peck
The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected multi-orbit satellite communications specialist neXat to lead a €1.5 million (£1.2 million) project developing automated satellite backup for submarine fibre networks.
neXat will work with satellite operator Telesat and telecoms infrastructure provider Colt Technology Services Belgium to develop and demonstrate CableShield, a system designed to detect submarine cable interruptions and automatically reroute affected traffic through satellite connectivity.
Submarine cables carry an estimated 99% of intercontinental data traffic, whilst around 30% of tracked cables experience at least one fault each year. Repairs can take 10 to 20 days, potentially leaving critical services without their normal connectivity.
CableShield automates traffic failover
CableShield will use multiple satellite providers through a ‘Pooling and Sharing’ model. When a cable interruption is detected, the platform will select the required satellite capacity and reroute a controllable proportion of traffic, with routing and prioritisation protocols used to establish an end-to-end connection.
The system will combine detection and decision-making with terrestrial and satellite control layers through a common orchestration framework. These layers will communicate using APIs defined through ESA’s Pooling and Sharing Interface Definitions, enabling multi-vendor, multi-orbit systems to exchange data and manage shared capacity.
Caroline De Vos, COO of neXat, explains, “Submarine cables carry an estimated 99% of global connectivity, so when they go down, entire regions can lose access instantly, disrupting business, public services, and other critical communications.
“Satellite provides the lifeline that keeps essential services online when their primary connectivity is gone.”
The project will run for 18 months of development and validation, with commercial launch targeted for 2028 alongside the planned entry into service of Telesat’s Lightspeed constellation.
