September 3, 2025

Understanding NTN: Connectivity surpasses ground-based infrastructure repetitive

Non-terrestrial networks (NTN) represent a transformative shift in wireless communication by extending connectivity far beyond the reach of traditional ground-based infrastructure. NTN is set to unlock or enhance a wide array of IoT use cases providing connectivity in environments where terrestrial networks are absent, unreliable or economically unviable. The key sectors that are expected to benefit from NTN include:

• Maritime and offshore operations
• Logistics and asset tracking
• Agriculture
• Environmental monitoring
• Energy industry
• Emergency response and public safety

The pivotal moment for formally standardizing and defining support for satellite-based 5G NR and IoT technologies was in 3GPP Release 17, with ongoing developments carried forward in later releases. This Release formalized NTN adoption and opened up the market to enable devices to connect utilizing both terrestrial cellular and a blend of satellite-based, non-terrestrial networks.

Design complexity: What makes NTN different and how to create an optimized design

Designing NTN capable devices requires accounting for distinct technical characteristics that differ significantly from terrestrial environments, such as:

• Propagation delay and Doppler shift due to significantly greater distances, satellite motion and relative speed compared to an object on the ground
• Link budget constraints that are common with long transmission paths
• Multi radio access technology (RAT) and frequency support for hybrid connectivity. Alongside terrestrial frequencies, the device must support NTN bands
• GNSS integration which is vital for satellite beam management

These challenges also create opportunities for innovation to provide optimized and cost affordable designs to win the market. Key considerations to focus on when designing IoT NTN product include:

• Use cases: Clearly define the specific needs and goals of the IoT application to minimize the device complexity and avoid unnecessary hardware parts
• Antenna: Longer transmission paths demand improved power amplification and high-end antenna systems. Antenna placement and design are of paramount importance because they directly impact the coverage, link budget, overall performance of the product and therefore overall product success
• Software: Appropriate selection and usage of lightweight management, transport layer and network layer protocols can enhance data transmission, integrity, security and efficiency while at the same time eliminating unnecessary overhead and increasing latency resilience
• Application and traffic model: Critical for narrowband NTN (NB-NTN) where, by default, the allocated bandwidth, throughput and maximum number of served users at the same time are very limited. Although network service providers typically implement a dynamic allocation of physical resource blocks (PRBs) to mitigate the capacity challenges, the reality is that geostationary earth orbit (GEO) NB-NTN networks must handle the communication of a greater number of devices within large coverage areas.

The traffic model and application layer in general should be dimensioned to:

• Expect longer round-trip-delays to avoid retransmissions
• Have optimized wake-up intervals that can make significant difference to a product lifetime in the case of battery powered devices
• Avoid synchronized network access and communication
• Implement a randomized attach timer
• Have a “resume” feature implemented for firmware and software updates
• Do RAT switching between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks in an optimized and randomized way
• Utilize advanced power saving mechanisms defined by 3GPP and module vendor

Market outlook: Satellite IoT on the rise

There were 7.5 million satellite IoT connections in 2024, according to the latest Satellite IoT Market Report 2025–2030 from analyst firm IoT Analytics, published June 2025. This number represents a mere 0.04% of the 18.8 billion global IoT connections in 2024 and just 0.17% of global cellular IoT connections.

The NTN and Direct-to-Cellular (D2C) market are projected to experience substantial revenue growth, with ABI Research forecasting service revenue to potentially reach $25 billion by 2035. As the technology matures, the potential for NTN to transform satellite connectivity and empower a multitude of use cases will continue to grow, paving the way for advanced and more connected environments worldwide.

ODM advantage: Accelerating NTN expertise

It’s important that bill of materials (BOM) costs for NTNs don’t spiral upwards and to minimize time to market. To do so, it’s essential to understand potential optimization aspects of the hardware design of IoT devices meant to operate using hybrid connectivity. This requires the careful selection of components such as cellular modules, GNSS receivers, antennas and batteries. The software architecture is essential for efficient, reliable communication, and together with hardware this forms a well-designed NTN device. Much of the complexity of accommodating NTN hardware into devices and optimizing performance can be addressed for IoT organizations if they turn to an original device manufacturer (ODM). The ODM approach can take away the strain of bespoke development and handle everything from design-in of NTN components to complete manufacture of an NTN-IoT device under the customer’s own brand.

An ODM can provide access to its expertise in NTN-related disciplines such as module and antenna integration, testing, device certification and compliance, fine-tuning and optimization, manufacturing and distribution. Importantly, NTN is an emerging technology so it’s unlikely that IoT organizations have had time to build the internal expertise that an ODM can already provide on-demand. An ODM can radically accelerate overall time-to-market abstracting away the complexities and creating optimized devices that are ready for use.

Contact Ikotek now to find out more about how we can design, develop and manufacture NTN devices that meet your current and future needs.