In previous blog posts, I introduced you to satellite-based IoT through technologies like Kinéis and Astrocast. Both of these solutions rely on constellations of satellites, typically in polar rotation around earth and low Earth orbits (LEO), which allow for global coverage—but at the cost of latency due to satellite revisit times.
This time, I want to highlight a different approach to satellite IoT: a solution called EchoStar IoT, which I had the opportunity to explore hands-on by developing a compatible device.
What sets EchoStar apart is its use of geostationary satellite technology. This means the satellite remains fixed relative to a specific area on Earth, continuously covering the same geographical zone. As a result, there is no satellite pass delay—connectivity is constant within the coverage footprint.
However, this also implies a trade-off: a single geostationary satellite cannot provide global coverage. As of today, EchoStar IoT services are available across most of Europe, parts of North Africa, and the entire Mediterranean region.
Geostationnary Satellite Solution
EchoStar’s IoT offering is based on geostationary satellite technology, meaning the satellite operates at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers above Earth. Naturally, this satellite wasn’t launched specifically for this IoT use case. It has been in service for quite some time and is used for multiple applications beyond IoT.
Interestingly, EchoStar is not the only one leveraging this satellite. Other providers, such as those deploying NB-IoT via satellite, also utilize this same infrastructure to offer similar coverage across Europe, North Africa.
It’s also worth noting that EchoStar has a twin satellite positioned to cover the American continent. While this satellite could technically offer the same IoT services for Canada, the U.S., and parts of Mexico, there has been no official announcement yet regarding commercial deployment in that region.
One of the most distinctive aspects of this geostationary setup is that the satellite performs no onboard processing. As its name suggests, “EchoStar” functions more like an RF mirror—it simply reflects the signal back down to Earth, where it is demodulated, decoded, and processed by ground infrastructure.
Despite the 36,000 km transmission distance, which one might assume would require high-power transmitters or large antennas, EchoStar’s solution is surprisingly energy-efficient. This is thanks to the satellite’s massive onboard antenna, measuring 18 meters in diameter and offering a gain of around 50 dBi. Such a high gain boosts the received signal by a factor of nearly one million, making it possible to establish reliable uplinks from Earth using just a few hundred milliwatts.
Although the protocol is designed to work with 27 dBm transmission powers, in practice, I achieved excellent results using standard antennas and only 20 dBm output power. With a well-designed antenna, communication could theoretically succeed at just a few dBm, making this an exceptionally energy-efficient solution for IoT.
There’s also the question of latency. A 36,000 km distance might raise concerns about round-trip delays, but in reality, the latency is only about 500 milliseconds—well within the tolerances of typical IoT protocols. In fact, terrestrial IoT systems often exhibit similar or greater latencies. As such, protocols like LoRaWAN are well-suited to this level of delay and function without significant compromise.
EchoStar benefits from access S-Band, at 2 GHz frequency, which it uses for communications. Operating in this band offers several technical advantages for satellite IoT applications.
First, the wavelength associated with 2 GHz allows for the design of relatively compact and efficient antennas—a critical factor for IoT devices where size and integration constraints are often strict. Additionally, this frequenc low congested and subject to lower interference levels, contributing to cleaner and more reliable communication links.
Moreover, EchoStar leverages this same frequency band consistently across all its service areas, which simplifies device interoperability and regulatory compliance. In the regions where EchoStar operates ; the company holds licenses to operate in this band, allowing for harmonized and scalable deployments.
EchoStar is levraging LoRaWan and LR-FHSS modulation
EchoStar leverages the LoRaWAN for communication, which is particularly convenient as it allows developers to benefit from the entire LoRaWAN ecosystem. Under the hood, the modulation employed is not standard LoRa but rather LR-FHSS (Long Range – Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum).
LR-FHSS is a telegram-splitting modulation scheme that incorporates both time and frequency diversity with narrow band signal, offering several key advantages. One major benefit is improved sensitivity, particularly important near the edges of satellite coverage, where signal strength can be limited. Another key strength is enhanced scalability: the use of multiple frequency channels in parallel significantly reduces the probability of collisions, even when many devices are transmitting simultaneously across a broad coverage area.
This aspect is crucial for geostationary satellite systems. Unlike terrestrial gateways, the satellite listens to a very large geographic area. Even though EchoStar logically partitions this coverage during signal reception and processing, the number of potential devices within a single “collision domain” remains substantial. As a result, the risk of packet collisions is inherently higher in satellite-based networks. LR-FHSS addresses this challenge effectively by spreading transmissions across time and frequency, thereby increasing overall network capacity and robustness.
Another important note is that LR-FHSS fleet reception requires software-defined radio (SDR) decoding, but this does not pose a significant issue in this context. As mentioned earlier, no decoding is performed onboard the satellite—all signals are reflected back to Earth, where they are captured by a ground station and decoded using SDR infrastructure.
From the device perspective, hardware must support LR-FHSS modulation in the 2 GHz band. This is achievable using Semtech’s LR-series chips, which are designed for this type of transmission. Once the message is decoded, standard LoRaWAN protocol layers are applied, meaning that the data is handled using a conventional LoRa Network Server. This also ensures that classic LoRaWAN identifiers such as DevEUI and AppEUI remain part of the system, making the satellite deployment compatible with existing terrestrial LoRaWAN softwares.
A further advantage is that the Semtech chips supporting LR-FHSS also retain full support for standard LoRa modulation. This dual capability enables the development of hybrid devices that can operate seamlessly in both terrestrial and satellite networks. From a logistics and integration standpoint, this is extremely efficient, as the same LoRaWAN software stack is used across both types of deployment, and the radio stack is unified within the same silicon.
Available Hardware
Currently, the market offers a module provided by EchoStar that enables bidirectional communication with the satellite. While the module is relatively large in size and fairly expensive, its cost remains within the expected range for satellite IoT connectivity solutions.
The major advantage, however, is that the module is fully bidirectional. It supports both uplink and downlink communication, a critical feature for many real-world IoT applications. In addition, the module is compatible with the OTAA (Over-The-Air Activation) mode when connecting to the LoRaWan. This enables the establishment of a new session at each reconnection, which enhances both security and session management.
It’s also worth highlighting that, because the EchoStar system fully supports the LoRaWan protocol stack, downlink messages can be received in standard RX windows—in other words, immediately after an uplink transmission. This capability is particularly valuable in a satellite environment, where implementing real-time or low-latency two-way communication is often more challenging than in terrestrial networks.
The large form factor is mainly due to the complexity of the receive path, which requires sophisticated circuitry to properly handle signal acquisition and demodulation. This complexity naturally translates into a more elaborate hardware design, contributing to the overall size and cost of the module.
In parallel, new modules and solutions are emerging, notably from Murata, which is introducing a compact module based on a Semtech LR chip. This module is designed to support uplink communication via the EchoStar geostationary system, although it does not support downlink communication. Its main advantage lies in its very small form factor and a significantly lower cost, making it a strong candidate for mass deployment in use cases where uplink-only connectivity is sufficient.
It’s important to note that LoRaWAN does not require bidirectional communication to function. Devices can operate in ABP (Activation By Personalization) mode, where a pre-established session eliminates the need for initial join procedures or downlink acknowledgments. This makes uplink-only communication entirely feasible from both a protocol and application standpoint.
For scenarios where occasional downlink messages are necessary, a hybrid approach can be used. For instance, a device in motion could fallback to terrestrial LoRaWAN when connectivity becomes available—allowing the server to deliver downlink commands during those brief windows. However, many IoT applications (such as telemetry, remote monitoring, or metering) are inherently uplink-centric, and do not require a permanent or even regular downlink channel.
This opens the door for lightweight, cost-efficient satellite IoT deployments, especially in scenarios where power consumption, device size, and hardware simplicity are critical.
Stay in touch
Having gained solid experience in developing devices that communicate over the EchoStar geostationary system, I’m available to support projects involving IoT architecture design, prototype development, or the implementation of complete solutions in the field of satellite or terrestrial IoT communication.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss a specific use case, feel free to get in touch via my professional website: dm91.tech.