The convergence of terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks is not only an infrastructure challenge. It is, fundamentally, a management challenge: how to define, activate and control services that traverse heterogeneous technology domains in a coherent, automated and scalable way. And it is precisely here that the absence of a common orchestration model becomes the main operational bottleneck.
For end users — individuals, enterprises or critical operations — the expectation is clear: continuous connectivity, available anywhere and in almost any situation. Translating that expectation into an operational architecture that genuinely supports it is the problem this article addresses.
In a typical operator, the coexistence of multiple access technologies — 5G, fibre, xDSL, IP/MPLS transport, and now NTN/satellite — results in a fragmentation of operational support systems (OSS). Each technology domain tends to manage its own resource and service catalogue, its own order activation engine and its own network inventory. The result is an architecture where delivering a service that crosses several domains requires manual intervention at each boundary, data duplication and very limited end-to-end traceability of the actual service state.
This model, already costly in purely terrestrial environments, becomes unsustainable when the satellite segment is added. NTN networks introduce new management layers — space segments, gateways, user terminals — that in most cases have no representation in the operator's existing OSS/BSS systems.
The answer to this problem cannot be proprietary. The multi-vendor, multi-domain nature of converged networks demands an interoperability framework based on open standards. In this context, the TM Forum Open APIs — covering the full flow from catalogue to order management and inventory — provide the common vocabulary that allows systems from different vendors and technology domains to coordinate without rigid coupling.
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These APIs are not merely integration interfaces: they define a shared information model that allows a single system to represent a fixed broadband service, a satellite backup link, or an edge node in a private 5G network. The consistency of the data model is what makes end-to-end automation posible.
Effective orchestration in multi-technology environments rests on three capabilities that must be aligned. The catalogue is the starting point: if commercial products, technical services and network resources are not modelled hierarchically and coherently — across the three levels articulated by the TMF620, TMF633 and TMF634 APIs — any automation attempt inherits that fragmentation. A unified catalogue allows a commercial offer — for example, guaranteed connectivity for an enterprise with presence in urban and remote environments — to be automatically decomposed into its technical components, whether terrestrial or satellite.
In an increasingly multi-vendor environment, where services are built by combining capabilities from different players and over shared infrastructures, this catalogue coherence becomes critical. Without it, every new partner or technology added brings complexity rather tan value.
Order management is where that definition translates into real activation. In converged environments, a service order may involve simultaneous coordination across multiple domains: provisioning a 5G access, configuring a transport circuit, activating a satellite terminal and deploying an edge function. Orchestration must manage those dependencies, ensure the correct activation sequence and maintain traceability of the overall order status.
Inventory closes the loop: without an up-to-date and reliable view of deployed services and resources, day-to-day operations — from incident resolution to capacity planning — rely on partial or outdated data. Here, integration with the operator's existing network inventories is key: the goal is not to replace them, but to federate them under a unified visibility layer.
Alvatross has developed and validated this approach in collaboration with key players in the telco ecosystem — operators, network platform vendors and standardisation bodies — within the TM Forum Catalyst programme, the collaborative innovation initiative where multi-company teams demonstrate solutions to real industry challenges.
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The progression of these three projects reflects the evolution of the ecosystem itself: from orchestrating the satellite domain in isolation, to integrating it with 5G networks, and finally to incorporating edge computing as an additional layer of complexity and value. The Tech for Good recognition in 2024 and 2025 underlines the impact of these capabilities in critical connectivity scenarios and coverage in underserved areas.
Managing converged multi-technology networks is not a problem solved by adding connectors between existing systems. It requires an orchestration model that starts from the catalogue — across its three levels of product, service and resource —, automates the order flow and maintains a coherent view of inventory, regardless of the technology domains involved. TM Forum Open API standards provide the necessary interoperability foundation; the ability to implement them in an integrated and validated way in real environments is what makes the difference between an architecture that promises and one that delivers. And that gap, still invisible to many, is the one that may tip the competitive advantage in the next generation of connectivity services.
