Based in San Diego, California, Kratos develops transformative, affordable systems, platforms and products for national security and communications needs. The company focuses on areas where technological advances can have a force multiplier effect, such as unmanned systems, warfighter training and combat systems, and satellite communications.
Kratos is an embedded partner of SUSE’s independent subsidiary, Rancher Government Solutions (RGS), which is focused on the unique security and operational needs of the United States government.
At-a-Glance
To transform satellite ground stations from costly, purpose-built hardware systems into cloud native, software-defined solutions, Kratos built its revolutionary OpenSpace® platform on a full stack of SUSE technologies. Today, the company can scale out satellite ground systems anywhere in the world faster and more cost-efficiently than ever.
Kratos powers space networks with Rancher
“Kratos virtual ground solutions — underpinned by SUSE solutions — are critical for providing satellite services in the hardest-to-reach places and supporting the most critical defense missions.”
The journey to cloud native satellite services
For more than 30 years, the Kratos Space Division has provided solutions for a wide range of satellite communications (SATCOM), Earth Observation (EO), Remote Sensing (RS), Command and Control (C2), and Space Domain Awareness (SDA) use cases. Today, 90% of US DOD and around 80% of commercial satellite and space operations rely on Kratos solutions.
Demand for terrestrial communications networks is soaring — and the insatiable appetite for data is also shaping the evolution of satellite network technology. Within this decade, the total number of satellites is set to increase by 900%. For satellite operators, one of the key drivers of this growth is to capitalize on rising demand for direct-to-device communications: mobile voice services for consumers who are out of range of terrestrial cell towers.
For satellite operators and telcos, these new services represent a multi-billion-dollar revenue opportunity. However, traditional approaches to satellite ground systems require operators to deploy costly, purpose-built, ground-station hardware in extremely remote locations. To support the next generation of satellite services, Kratos recognized that reducing the cost and complexity of delivering satellite services at the edge would be crucial.
To solve this challenge, Kratos is pioneering an open, software-defined solution: moving satellite network functions from purpose-built proprietary hardware to virtualized, cloud native services at the core, the gateway, and the edge of the network.
Kevin Tobias, director of product management at Kratos Space, explains: 'With a software-defined solution, we can empower operators to provision general-purpose compute from a variety of different ecosystem vendors and deploy what they need when they need it. With a software-defined approach, startups will be able to put their spacecraft into orbit and use the ground-station-as-a-service solution of choice from a variety of vendors and hyperscalers — eliminating the need to build dedicated infrastructure.'
To realize its vision, Kratos looked for technologies capable of supporting virtualized satellite network functions in a cloud native environment. Early on in the development process, the company decided to leverage Kubernetes to deploy, scale, and manage the containerized applications at the heart of its new offering. To bring its new solution to market rapidly, the company looked for an effective way to deliver virtualization and orchestration capabilities securely and at scale.
The impact of SUSE
Kratos had two key goals: to create a multi-mission, cloud native platform capable of running in the data center and the cloud, and to extend those capabilities all the way out to the far edge. With SUSE’s edge and enterprise container management solutions, the company employed a turnkey software stack that dramatically reduces the complexity of orchestrating and scaling its virtualized environments.
Today, SUSE solutions form the basis for the Kratos offering, which transforms almost every component of the satellite ground station from hardware into software. With Kratos OpenEdge™ software-enabled satellite terminals on the Kratos OpenSpace platform, providers can streamline and automate the provisioning of satellite services for their clients while ensuring security and quality of service.
To underpin OpenEdge, Kratos uses K3s Kubernetes clusters deployed on SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro — a lightweight Linux host designed to simplify the operation and development of virtual workloads. The SUSE solution provides a secure, edge-native stack for hosting containerized network functions including virtual modems, receivers, third-party applications such as accelerators, SD-WAN, and more.
Using Rancher Fleet, a powerful container management and deployment engine in Rancher Prime, the company delivers a seamless process for provisioning far-edge deployments with satellite access.
The entire environment is managed using SUSE Edge, a cloud native edge computing platform for managing the full lifecycle of edge devices at scale.
To convert satellite radio frequencies (RF) to digital data at the edge, the company employs Edge digitizers that use SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for Arm. Hardened in accordance with Defense Information System Agency (DISA) and Security Technical Implementation Guidance (STIG), SLES for Arm helps Kratos meet stringent compliance requirements.
For the OpenSpace platform, the company leverages RKE2 (Rancher’s next-generation Kubernetes distribution) with Rancher Multi-Cluster Manager. The solution provides a secure, robust, and highly available cloud native stack for hosting containerized network functions on-premises and in the cloud.
Tobias confirms: “With SUSE, we have a full-stack solution to deploy our containerized network functions on. Meeting our clients’ cybersecurity requirements was also key, and SUSE made that easier.”
Why SUSE?
New services in minutes not weeks
Kratos is now using OpenSpace and OpenEdge to support a wide variety of use cases, from earth observation, satellite communications, space domain awareness, and satellite telemetry, tracking, and control. The company can instantiate new services and missions for its clients in minutes instead of the weeks or even months typically required with traditional proprietary hardware-based ground systems.
“Kratos virtual ground solutions — underpinned by SUSE solutions — are critical for providing satellite services in the hardest-to-reach places and supporting the most critical defense missions,” says Tobias.
Leveraging open standards
Kratos sees that satellite services will play a pivotal role in the future of telco, and that open standards will be vital to accelerate the convergence of terrestrial and non-terrestrial communications technologies. As a result, the company aimed to build its new technology on an open, standards-based cloud native stack — exactly what SUSE solutions offer.
From gateways powered by RKE2 to lightweight K3s Kubernetes clusters at the far edge of the satellite network, partnering with SUSE empowers Kratos to deploy and manage elastic, cloud-agnostic, fully virtualized environments built on widely accepted industry standards.
Maintaining rock-solid security
Another key advantage of partnering with SUSE is the ability to leverage robust, compliant security capabilities throughout the stack. By choosing solutions that had already been hardened to STIG standards and thoroughly audited by external organizations, Kratos had peace of mind that it was building on a strong, secure foundation.
Tobias adds: “Once we moved to a full stack provided by SUSE, it really helped us to focus on what we do best. SUSE’s strong commitment to security gives us the comfort to build on top of the stack and bring our value to market faster.”
Enabling zero-touch provisioning
With SUSE, Kratos gains the peace of mind that its virtualization and orchestration capabilities are secure, scalable, and reliable — empowering the company to cut time-to-market for its next-generation virtual ground solutions.
After OpenEdge terminals have been deployed in the field, Kratos clients can leverage zero-touch provisioning to unlock new capabilities without costly site visits. “Zero-touch provisioning will revolutionize our clients’ businesses,” says Tobias. “Our clients have just been delighted to see these capabilities come to the market.”
What’s next for Kratos?
Kratos is moving its revolutionary software-defined approach to satellite networks off the drawing board and into production. At the 2023 Space Symposium, the company demonstrated how a mobile OpenEdge terminal can support multiple mission profiles from a single edge device — achieving what would have previously required multiple rack units of purpose-built equipment into a single general-purpose rack unit. By building on the open, cloud native SUSE stack, the company has scalable technology that will underpin a new generation of satellite and space business models.