The European Space Agency has awarded a €1.5 million contract to satellite operations specialist neXat to develop a system that can automatically reroute traffic via satellites when submarine fibre cables fail.
The CableShield project, being developed with satellite operator Telesat and telecoms infrastructure provider Colt Technology Services Belgium, will detect interruptions to submarine cable networks and switch a controllable portion of affected traffic to satellite connectivity without manual intervention.
The 18-month project is being funded through ESA’s Space Systems for Safety and Security (4S) programme, part of the agency’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme. The consortium is targeting commercial deployment in 2028, alongside the planned entry into service of Telesat’s Lightspeed low-Earth orbit constellation.
Submarine cables carry the vast majority of international data traffic, making cable failures a potential source of prolonged disruption to communications between countries and regions. NeXat said around 30% of tracked submarine cables experience at least one fault each year, while repairs can take between 10 and 20 days.
The proposed system is intended to automate a process that currently requires network operators to manage terrestrial and satellite infrastructure separately.
CableShield will connect three layers: a detection and decision layer, terrestrial network controls and satellite network controls. When a cable interruption is identified, the system will determine the satellite capacity required, request resources through participating satellite networks and reroute a selected volume of traffic.
The system is also designed to use capacity from multiple satellite providers rather than relying on a single satellite network. NeXat describes this as a “Pooling & Sharing” model, in which satellite resources can be allocated according to the requirements of the failed terrestrial connection.
The project will use application programming interfaces defined through ESA’s Pooling and Sharing Interface Definitions (PSID) activity to connect the different systems. The aim is to allow multi-vendor and multi-orbit satellite networks to exchange information, request capacity and manage shared resources through a common framework.
Caroline De Vos, COO of neXat, said satellite connectivity could provide a fallback for critical communications when submarine cables fail.
“Having a dedicated multi-orbit platform like neXat’s ensures service providers can access and manage backup connectivity effectively when it is needed the most,” she said.
Thierry Eltges, CEO of neXat, said the project was intended to allow satellite and terrestrial network operators to work as a single system rather than as separate infrastructures.
The project will now move into development and validation, with a field demonstration planned before the proposed 2028 commercial launch.
The project does not aim to replace submarine cables with satellite networks. Instead, it is designed to provide an automated fallback for a proportion of traffic when terrestrial connectivity is interrupted, with routing and traffic prioritisation determining which data is transferred over the available satellite capacity.
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