ViaSat Fields Satellite Access Management System for U.S. Military

ViaSat has successfully fielded its new Satellite Access Manager (SAM) broadband satcom service manager for United States military airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations, the company announced.    
   The ViaSat SAM real-time network monitoring system was designed to work with the company’s ArcLight 2 mobile satellite broadband terminals. When combined, the system aims to enable network managers to provision multiple remote users on an airborne network within a common bandwidth pool, while providing dynamic assignment of bandwidth and communications priority to high-value platforms as they begin missions.    
   ViaSat said SAM is primarily for U.S. Department of Defense missions, which have different requirements compared to commercial network customers who share capacity while using the its Yonder global mobile service.    
  “With SAM-enabled ViaSat mobile ArcLight 2 terminals, users can configure a fleet of aircraft to operate on the same network, yet consume bandwidth only for those aircraft flying at the same time," ViaSat Global Mobile Broadband Deputy General Manager Larry Taylor said in a statement. “That can result in huge cost savings over systems that require allocation of satellite bandwidth for all aircraft in the fleet whether they fly or not.”