Broadband Data Networking
Achieving the look and feel of a terrestrial or wired network for high performance IP packet delivery over satellite can be very challenging. With the Tachyon Total Access Point System from Tachyon Inc., for example, a combination of advanced signal processing, the implementation of protocols such as Tachyon Satellite Protocol (TSP) and QoS infrastructure has paid off.
"Our emphasis is on data networking and satellite technology," says Jeremy Guralnick, chief scientist at Tachyon. "We are continuously improving our products and looking at more advanced waveforms to advance our bits per hertz speeds in order to offer more bandwidth for our customers. Tachyon designed its own modems, for example, because there was not a COTS product available that was able to deliver network performance for IP-based solutions."
Tachyon plans to leverage more advanced wave forms that may or may not include 8PSK or 16 QAM, according to Guralnick, and it is developing an end-to-end video service with a DSNG trial already underway. It provides the U.S. Forest Service with remote Web portal access for a rapid filing of fire status reports in the field, and the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) for remote IP-based video surveillance. In addition, it attracted a diverse mix of private sector customers like Mitsui in Europe--now a Tachyon reseller--and Hendrick Motor Sports that are able to deliver secure IPSec traffic with clear channel performance.
"Tachyon's standards-based broadband network allows enterprises to dictate the security features that they would like to employ on their network. Meanwhile, the advantage of using Tachyon's integrated, IP-based, single vendor service offering is that data transmission speeds are not affected by encryption applications, which is a major issue with satellite or DVB-based encryption," says Guralnick.
Bypassing The Public Internet
Seeking a VoIP, remote IP videoconferencing and limited broadband solution at 144 kbs that bypasses the public Internet altogether? Along with the GPRS-based packet data network offered via the multiple spotbeams on the Thuraya satellite, Telenor Satellite Services (TSS) now has dedicated leased line service. This service runs from the Inmarsat satellite access station in Italy to its Regional Broadband Global Area Network (Regional BGAN) POP in Norway for its customers in Europe, North and Central Africa, the Middle East and the Indian region.
VoIP systems that can be run on the Regional BGAN platform via a laptop microphone include the chat functions available through Yahoo Messenger and Net2Phone. Web cams can be activated for these sessions as well, and TSS has tested the mm145 Motion Media IP Video phone, and the IP videoconferencing solution developed by Divysy in Russia, for example.
"We are offering a portable and lightweight solution--the Regional BGAN Mobile Satellite Modem is smaller than any laptop--for anyone who must operate in areas of the world where telecom infrastructure is thin or absent altogether," says Jeff Irwin, regional BGAN product manager at TSS in Rockville, MD. "The dedicated private network option, along with the optional bandwidth savings which stem from tying into our Citrix server platform, and access to our pool of static Internet addresses ensure maximum security and performance for our customers."
This combination of Telenor's technology with Citrix provides secure, high-speed connectivity at any time, regardless of the local infrastructure. The users also have the benefit of the Citrix solution, which is designed to reduce costs due to reducing the amount of data that is transferred or sent back and forth.
"We believe that the Regional BGAN technology provides the mobile, remote connectivity Citrix users require when looking to extend corporate LANs and WANs. According to Citrix, of its some 50 million users, close to 50 percent of them require some sort of remote access capabilities," adds Irwin. "Regional BGAN, and the next generation of this technology, BGAN slated for service in 2005, fill this need."
Another recent addition is Telenor E-Mail Advanced. This is a full duplex feature that includes automatic mailbag compression and a crash recovery program capable of restoring a full duplex link if necessary, thus yielding a substantial savings when it comes to e-mail traffic. Incoming e-mail also is automatically scanned for viruses by Telenor's E-Mail Advanced Hub. This service is available to all Telenor Inmarsat A, B, M, Mini-M, Fleet and GAN customers on sea or land.
Evaluating A Cots Router In Leo
In late September, the simultaneous launch of three new small satellites designed and built by U.K.-based Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) for the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) made news for a number of reasons. They include Bilsat for Tubitak-ODTU Bilten in Turkey, Nigeriasat 1 for the National Space Research and Development Agency of Nigeria and the British UK-DMC satellite. For Cisco Systems Global Defense and Space Group, the launch of UK-DMC was an opportunity to integrate the first off-the-shelf router in a satellite. Among other things, a few modifications were made to the router's soldering and capacitors so it could operate in the vacuum of space, and a large heat sink was added.
"Routers have been in space, but all the routers to date have been custom built. We paid SSTL to undertake a four-month integration of our mobile access router running standards-based IP via Cisco IOS software," says Rick Sanford, director, Global Space Initiatives, Cisco Systems. "There are no standards-based IP networks-based in space. So before the IEEE or IETF can ratify anything, we need to get more data. We just want to ring out the viability of flying commercial hardware and also look at the software dimension."
Via a secure virtual tunnel to the virtual mission operations center at SSTL, Cisco Systems say they intend to test such things as warm and cold boots and the router's overall performance as the UK-DMC satellite makes its six to eight passes per day around the Earth. Conducting software upgrades in space is also part of the exercise. The intent here is to further the cause of extending processing onboard to encompass what is known as slot cloud networking, which pertains to dedicated, mutually supporting and networked clusters of GEO as well as LEO satellites.
"Besides examining whether protocols like TCP and RTP are right for the job at hand, we are watching to see how MPLS performs in low-earth orbit. Is this an opportunity to adopt a portion of it or leverage it? Will the payload even work?" Sanford says. "This is one of the first true instances of macro-level convergence. You could call it Teledesic on the cheap. We want to take a close look at the what it will take to go well beyond onboard processing and build the virtual satellite by extending the buses of multiple satellites to create a virtual bus or slot cloud network."
It is hard to imagine that all the diverse elements that make up the world of IP over satellite are coming together so quickly. Broadcasters with their eyes on the HDTV prize, and the U.S. military, which estimates that it will spend billions throughout the next few years on satellite communications, are just two sectors eager to see what unfolds. While VoIP alone is still in its relative infancy and the role of space-based IP networking is not much beyond the definitional phase, the IP over satellite realm, with all of its necessary seamless connections to terrestrial infrastructures, is gaining business momentum.
Peter J. Brown is Via Satellite's Senior Multimedia & Homeland Security Editor.
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