The Pooling & Sharing Interface Definition Project (PSI) implements a common standard to harmonize the interfaces between a Pooling & Sharing System (PSS) and actors that share an interface with the PSS.
A PSS is a digital platform for matchmaking SatCom users' demands (both commercial and institutional) with SatCom providers' offers. Bringing together multiple SatCom providers in one platform makes the market transparent, thus allowing users to get an overview of the market and to compare different offers efficiently. Additionally, a PSS assists users with little knowledge about the SatCom domain defining their requirements on the SatCom services. Those two aspect combined allow for fast access to the services and an efficient usage of the available capacities. To accomplish this, a PSS steps in between the usual processes of finding a provider/supplier, requesting an offer, and ordering the desired products or services, either as a service broker or by pooling products and services from different providers and offering them as an intermediary or distributor. Subsequently, the PSS can be used to monitor the services and manage multiple missions in a single application.
Eventually, a PSS can also be used as (or manage) a community hub, i.e., a number of end users or customers with similar interest that share their common resources and utilize a commonly obtained pool of SatCom capacities. This strategy increases the efficient usage of scarce resources further.
There are already different approaches on PSSs, that might lead to an unnecessary fragmentation of the market. Therefore, a common standard for the interfaces of a PSS is required to allow the interaction between those different PSSs and reduce the effort of SatCom providers to offer their product and services via multiple PSSs to maximize their reach.
Such a standard needs to take care of the different interfaces involved in the aforementioned processes, i.e.,
- an interface between PSS and resource providers (satellite operators, service providers, or other PSSs),
- an interface between the PSS and users, and
- an interface between PSS and its own governance.
The goal of this project is to mainly define aspect 1 and to develop a software mock-up as needed to validate the various interfaces developed.
The PSI standard derives from the existing industry-standard "Open Digital Framework" of TM Forum alliance1. The "Open Digital Framework" is a reference framework for delivering online Information, Communications and Entertainment services to the telecom world. It empowers market participants to compete and cooperate. One of PSI's goals is to make this existing standard fit for the world of satellite communication.
PSI has been started as an ESA funded initiative2.
Find the release notes here.
Find the current standard documentation here
We welcome contributions to this initiative. The following outlines the process and governance for contributing.
Before you create a contribution, you should create an issue to describe what you plan to address and make any work visible to the whole team. You should also check that there are no open issues that may conflict with your planned contribution.
Reach out to the maintainers for detailed contribution rules, as they are not yet finalized.