Amphinicy and ETL demonstrate RF-to-IP interoperability at DIFI PlugFest 2026
Amphinicy Technologies and ETL Systems successfully demonstrated a full integrated RF-to-IP signal processing chain at the 2026 DIFI PlugFest.
PlugFest reflects the growing industry demand for open architectures, software-defined ground systems, and cloud-ready networks that enable operators to integrate best-in-class digital technologies in a vendor-agnostic way.
Amphinicy recently joined ETL Systems, a UK-based designer and manufacturer of RF equipment for critical ground infrastructure, and a Board-level member of the DIFI Consortium. Amphinicy's Blink product line, including a wideband software modem and a software channeliser, adds a fully software-defined signal processing layer on top of ETL's RF and digitisation products.
The combined ETL and Amphinicy demonstration highlighted a complete RF-to-IP workflow, with signals converted by ETL’s edge digitiser then channelised by the Blink high-performance channeliser and processed by the Blink software modem. The demo showcased successful interoperation with a significant number of other vendors’ equipment, reinforcing the core objective of enabling an open, standards-based ecosystem for the virtualised ground segment.
This capability is critical as satellite operators and government-backed connectivity programmes increasingly explore multi-orbit architectures, which require greater flexibility, interoperability, and resilience than traditional single-orbit networks. While the bandwidths demonstrated at the Plugfest are a fraction of what Blink supports, its wideband transmission, reception, channelisation and interoperability capabilities are a clear signal that Blink can play a critical role in the modern, dynamic SATCOM ground segment.
Building on robust DIFI support to communicate seamlessly with a wide array of third party devices is a signal of a broader strength of the Blink product family: to work next to third party digital and analogue ground equipment, so that operators can gradually evolve their infrastructure from analogue to digital, rather than forcing them to make a single all-or-nothing step. In doing so, Blink makes migration safer and more manageable.
DIFI demonstration highlights
- As part of the event, the combined team achieved trial certification of the DIFI Core Profile, successfully receiving and processing DIFI-compliant streams from over 30 DIFI sources.
- The Blink modem also delivered particularly strong results, demonstrating DVB-S2 demodulation and decoding, and offering standout performance in the DIFI 600 high-rate tests, successfully transmitted at 250 Mbaud.
- The Amphinicy team also achieved successful channel-splitting tests, including extracting a 10 Mbaud channel from a 600 MS/s input, with hours of continuous clean operation and successful UDP streaming.
“As satellite networks continue to evolve towards a full-virtualised, software-defined ground segment, interoperability is key,” said Simon Swift, CTO at ETL Systems and Chair of the DIFI Specification Working Group. “This successful collaboration between ETL and Amphinicy, which delivered such great success during the live demonstrations, illustrates how open standards can accelerate innovation and give operators greater choice when designing next-generation networks.”
“The DIFI Plugfest is a multi-day event packed with hands-on, proper engineering work carried out by teams representing some of the most prominent companies in ground systems for the space industry,” added Tomislav Nakić-Alfirević, Head of Technology (Blink) at Amphinicy.
“We are delighted to see such overwhelmingly positive standards compliance and performance test results at our first PlugFest, all the more because both the Blink modem and the Blink channeliser were used. For Blink customers, this means peace of mind: Blink will work reliably with their ground equipment if it talks DIFI, and do so at speed.”
PlugFest provided a valuable opportunity for collaboration and knowledge-sharing across the satellite communications, defence, and technology communities. This successful demonstration reflects ETL and Amphinicy’s commitment to both strengthening the DIFI ecosystem and advancing interoperable technologies for modern SATCOM networks and digital ground stations.
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