Plan to put a router in orbit to speed satellite communications.
seaweedsteve
speed
satellite communications.
John Blau, IDG News Service
Thursday, April 12, 2007 08:00 AM PDT
The U.S. military plan to test an Internet router in space, in a
project that could also benefit civilian broadband satellite
communications.
Cisco Systems Inc. and Intelsat General Corp., a subsidiary of
Intelsat Ltd., are among the companies selected by the U.S.
Department
of Defense for its Internet Routing In Space (IRIS) project, which
aims to deliver military communications through a satellite-based
router.
Potential nonmilitary benefits of the IRIS program include the
ability
to route IP (Internet Protocol) traffic between satellites in space
in
much the same way packets are moved on the ground, reducing delays,
saving on capacity and offering greater networking flexibility, Lloyd
Wood, space initiatives manager in the Global Defense, Space &
Security division of Cisco, said Thursday.
To send a message from one remote terminal to another via satellite
today requires the first terminal to send the data to the satellite,
from where it is bounced back to an earth station for routing. The
earth station retransmits it to the satellite on a different
frequency, selected depending on its destination, and the satellite
bounces it back to its destination. With the router in space, the
satellite can pick the channel used to send the message to its
destination. By eliminating the message's round trip to the earth
station, operators can increase satellite capacity and reduce
transmission times between remote terminals by using fewer hops and
fewer frequencies for each message.
For the IRIS program, satellite operator Intelsat will manage the
three-year project, with Cisco will provide IP networking software
for
the on-board router.
After testing, the technology will be available for commercial use.
Although satellites have been passively relaying IP traffic since the
1970s, the use of an orbiting satellite as an active part of the
Internet is a more recent development, according to Wood.
Traditionally, communication signals that come up to a satellite in
either the C-band or the Ku-band, go down in the same band, he said.
They require separate transponders that don't communicate with each
other.
Internet routing technology being tested in the IRIS project will
enable this communication by "decoding what comes up in the C-band or
Ku-band and interconnecting the two," said Wood.
"You save on delays and capacity by not having to go back to the
ground," said Wood. "And once you have smarter satellites, you can
treat them as not completely separate but as part of your IP network
and manage them as you do your IP networking assets on the ground.
They become fully integrated with your terrestrial network, allowing
you to take advantage of existing management tools and also decrease
the number of ground stations."
The IRIS payload will support network services for voice, video and
data. The system is designed to support IP packet Layer 3 routing or
multicast distribution, which can be reconfigured on demand.
The Defense Information Systems Agency will have overall
responsibility for coordinating the use of IRIS technology among
government users and leveraging IRIS capability once the satellite is
in space.
The satellite is set for launch in the first quarter of 2009.
george conklin
"seaweedsteve" <seawee...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1176576808.6...@o5g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
Thank you for the repost of the article.
Don Bradner
wrote:
>Cyberspace meets outer space in plan to put a router in orbit to
>speed satellite communications.
>John Blau, IDG News Service
>Thursday, April 12, 2007 08:00 AM PDT
The technology in question is fairly ordinary satellite. As is often
the case with such articles, the author writes without adequate
background knowledge, leading them to believe they are talking about
something new and different. The Hughes Spaceway system, in
development since 1999, has always employed intelligent routing of
signals, including satellite-to-satellite. That is also the way that
the defunct project Teledesic was designed.
For geostationary, if you work out the math you will see that sending
a signal up to a satellite south of Iraq, then routing it to a
satellite south of the US, then down, with the reply in reverse, will
be a longer path with higher latency than the way it works now, where
the satellite signal from Iraq is reflected back to a receiver in
Europe then cable-routed to the US and back again.
The military advantage would be in security, since it would not pass
through terrestrial or the public internet. Iraq to satellite to
satellite to Washington, DC with no ground segment.
Spaceway will offer that capability to business as well - corporate
office to satellite to manufacturing plant with no ground segment. If
there is ever another Spaceway satellite located elsewhere in the
world, that communication could be from the US to Malaysia with no
ground segment. Corporations, like the military, may give up latency
to get security in their communications.
---
Don Bradner
donb (not don) at arcatapet.com
'90 Wanderlodge PT40 "Blue Thunder"
towing '07 Jeep Liberty
seaweedsteve
that this seems to stem from a press release when the contracts were
rewarded, not just from one author.
If there is no great advantage to this approach, then why is Hughes
doing it? Cheaper bandwidth?
Cheers,
Steve
Don Bradner
wrote:
I think I noted that the advantage is the security of eliminating the
ground segment. The military wants it, big corporations want it. With
a "reflector" type of transponder, everything has to go down to a
single NOC. With spot beams and routing, point-to-point connections
are possible. Such connections aren't particularly "better," just
different and in complete control by the connected parties.
Hughes will also offer their VARs the ability to become actual ISPs,
handling all aspects of the connection. Mini-NOCs anywhere you want
them to be. The hardware has already been designed, and I think some
VARs are already under contract for it when it is ready.
My objection to the article/Press Release is that it intimates that
satellite internet doesn't exist yet, and that router-connected
satellites are a new invention.
seaweedsteve
appreciate the more complete one.
I was just over at "your" forum tonight getting some "continuing
education". A lot of good info, even though we have a fixed dish
system!
Cheers,
Steve
seaweedsteve
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.internet.wireless/browse_thread/thread/329c9e5f2ebeebfb?hl=en
Kinda interesting.
David Spain
Yeah, I'm skeptical that there'll be alot of traffic shaping going on within the
bird. The power cost and link bw wastage is just too high. Intelligent routing allowing
independent ISPs as Don points out make sense. But the traffic shaping will be done by the
ISPs terrestrial NOC, not on the bird. Why waste link bandwidth that's going to get thrown
away in the bird, when effectively its too late? You've already paid 1/2 the cost just
getting there. Satellite really demands end point throttling.
Dave