Linux powers nation\x{2019}s largest satellite network
Roy Culley
'Some 75 towns across New South Wales have started accessing the
Internet through Linux-based satellite routers in what is said to be
largest network of its type in Australia spanning upwards of 800,000
square kilometres.'
...
'"In 1999 when Telstra began its satellite service we used routers
from the US but they were unsatisfactory for Australian conditions,"
Cover said. "We also tried to develop an interface with Windows but
got too frustrated as [we found it] too unstable."
Ursys routers use Debian GNU/Linux as the base operating system and
developed a networking application suite for it in Sydney.
We source a variety of Intel, VIA, and National Semiconductor hardware
and have developed our own TCP/IP stack as standard [TCP/IP] doesn't
function well with satellite," he said. "We also use open source
software for other applications like firewalls, QoS, IPSec VPNs, mail
and DNS. All management is done via a Web interface so the client
doesn't see the Linux interface."
Ursys chose Debian because of its packaging support, which facilitates
the ability to push updates to the routers remotely.
"We have three experienced Linux maintainers and a lot of our work has
been pushed back into open source," Cover said. "Some satellite
software is proprietary but our IP lies in our package and integration
work."'