Subscriber Equipment
Modern satellite subscriber equipment consists of a roof mounted dish and a satellite modem, similar in look and function to a traditional DSL modem. KaComm can support a range of dishes that provide high capacity connectivity while being small enough to conform to relevant state planning regulations. KaComm satellite dishes can be mounted on roofs, other structures or the ground, and simply require firm anchoring and a clear line of site to the northern sky. Satellite dishes are powered from the Satellite Modem which is installed indoors as per a standard DSL modem.
Like DSL modems, satellite modems are always on. All traffic to and from the modem passes through the satellite eliminating the need for telephone lines. Satellite modems support the full range of modern subscriber equipment including multiple Windows and Apple computers, Ethernet and wireless local area networks, routers, VoIP-enabled telephones, internet enabled CCTV, and various music streaming media devices and services.
Various acceleration techniques are employed to increase efficiency. Accelerations techniques include:
- Compression. Modern satellite equipment compresses and decompresses internet traffic as it passes across the satellite link. This allows the satellite link to be used more efficiently thereby improving throughput, reducing congestion and improving transmission times.
- Caching and Pre-fetching. Many websites and other internet applications use the same images or data over and over again. Instead of getting a fresh copy of the same data each time it is used, caching allows a copy to be stored on the user’s home modem. Not only does this data load more quickly, caching also frees up space across the link that can be used for new data. HTTP pre-fetching employs intelligent application-aware technologies to pre-request and obtain advance copies of web-page components to reduce the impact of satellite link latency on the load time of complex web pages.
- Traffic prioritisation/Quality of Service. Traffic that is more time critical is given priority over traffic that can tolerate short delays. This means that traffic such as VoIP is given priority over text based email to ensure that two users in the same residence can enjoy voice calls and email simultaneously with no perceivable degradation in quality of experience for either.
- Error detection and correction. Special coding in the modem detects transmission errors and actually corrects them before passing the traffic on to the end user. This significantly reduces the number of requests for retransmits of traffic, which in turn causes delay.
- TCP/IP acceleration. The underlying TCP/IP technology was designed to cope with an internet that was of far lower quality than that provided today. Modern satellite is inherently high quality, with error detection and correction lifting the quality even further. The overhead built into TCP/IP is wasted over a high quality satellite link, and ironically actually causes the link to operate more slowly. TCP/IP accelerations using Protocol Enhancing Proxy (PEP) brings the underlying internet protocols in line with the quality of modern satellite links, thereby dramatically increasing the speed experienced by the user.
- Power optimisation and adaptive coding and modulation. The amount of power generated and received by the modem, the amount of coding and the type of modulation will determine the quality of the satellite link. Satellite broadband systems are engineered to provide high quality links under a normal range of atmospheric conditions. Modern systems are able to dynamically increase power, increase coding, and adjust modulation to certain modems to compensate for abnormal conditions. ‘Rain fade, the drop out of satellite performance caused by heavy rain, has been virtually eliminated by the use of these techniques allowing both the satellite and the affected modems to generate more power to cut through the weather without significant degradation of the signal. In short, modern systems keep working even in heavy tropical rain.
Development and improvements in acceleration technology are ongoing, with the acceleration techniques themselves mostly implemented in software in the customer’s CPE and network hub equipment. This means than as new algorithms are developed, they can be rolled out throughout the network including to Customer’s equipment (generally automatically across the satellite link) allowing the system to continuously improve and evolve in response to changing web technology. Unlike earlier generations, the launch of the satellite no longer freezes the technology or the customer’s experience.
Even as the technology continues to improve, CPE prices continue to fall. First generation equipment could cost as much as $5,000 or more. Second generation technology, which was an order of magnitude more capable, typically cost $1,500 - $2,500. Third generation equipment, which produces performance comparable to ADSL2+ is planned to cost under US$400.
Evolution of Satellite Broadband and its Role in Serving Australia's Rural Population
History of Satellite Solutions in Rural Australia
The earliest VSAT (very small aperture terminal) satellite technology was deployed in rural Australia in the late 1980s and early 1990s to bring basic voice connectivity to remote locations. These early VSAT solutions provided basic voice circuits and employed relatively simple digital technology without much processing, resulting in “lifeline” type voice circuits that were subject to occasional outages and distracting artefacts such as echo. As home computer (PC) technology became prevalent, digital modems were overlayed on these low data rate VSAT satellite circuits to provide basic computer connectivity comparable to dial-up connectivity.
Over the past few years, there have been many initiatives to address broadband service inadequacies across Australia, particularly in rural and remote areas. Technical solutions proposed and instigated included hybrid fibre cable, fibre, cable and terrestrial wireless. These various initiatives have been rolled out by many different organisations on a fragmented basis to relatively limited areas that were seen as being financially viable or filling universal service obligations. Many parts of the nation, not only in rural and remote areas, but also in metro and regional locations, are underserved or not served at all.
The Australian Government’s Broadband Guarantee program was established to provide a case-by-case subsidy to those who could not access broadband services of an acceptable minimum level. Some of these were offered broadband access via satellite. Unfortunately, the older generation satellite networks that evolved from the first generation VSAT systems described above, were not designed for broadband and hence provide limited service capabilities not much better than dial-up. This piece-meal approach for providing broadband has proved to be ineffective in addressing current broadband requirements in regards to service speeds and consumer costs and will be totally inadequate in addressing the future broadband requirements envisioned by the National Broadband Network and necessary to support new applications and future content-delivery services.
Current Satellite Broadband Offerings in Australia
Some satellite broadband services currently offered in Australia are based on first generation technologies that are more than 10 years old, limited in speed, unsophisticated in Quality of Service management and high in cost. The first generation satellites used in Australia are primarily based on Ku-band spectrum and utilize a single beam pattern that limits total satellite capacity to approximately 1 giga-bit per second (Gbps), thereby restricting the broadband service provided to typically less than 128 kbps (and often less than 56 kbps in practise). The total potential number of subscribers is restricted and the customer premise equipment expensive, usually greater than $2000 per installation.
Second generation Ku-band satellite broadband services are now available in Australia via the foreign-owned IPStar satellite serving the whole of the Asian and Australian regions. While the second generation services offer improvement in speed and performance over first generation services, only a very small proportion of the satellite’s capacity is allocated to Australia, restricting the total number of Australian subscribers to significantly fewer than required to bring second-generation satellite broadband services to all underserved Australians.Ku frequencies require a larger, more expensive CPE dish and are less efficient than Ka-band in data transmission.
Worldwide Status of Second Generation Ka-band Satellite Broadband Services
Second generation Ka-band broadband satellites have been in service over North America since 2005. These satellites are the first of the pure Ka-band spacecraft that incorporate refined, more efficient spot beam technology.
One such second generation system that is operational in North America is the SPACEWAY system. This system was designed and developed by Hughes Network Systems L.L.C (Hughes) (www.hughesnet.com) and is used to offer HughesNet Consumer and Enterprise broadband satellite services in the U.S.A. Senior management of KaComm have worked with Hughes in the deployment of this system. HughesNet is now offering broadband service speeds up to 3 Mbps to their subscribers.
Another second generation Ka-Band satellite broadband system, “WildBlue” (www.wildblue.com), has been successfully deployed in the United States. The WildBlue satellite system was built by Space Systems/Loral (www.ssloral.com).
With subscriber numbers approaching 1 million, Ka-band satellite broadband technology and customer acceptance is now proven, and there is a growing demand for additional satellite capacity. The customer take-up rate of these satellite broadband services has exceeded all expectations. The churn rate with both these satellite systems is less than 1% per month. Additionally, there has been a significant customer acceptance in metro and regional areas where terrestrial service availability is limited.
The Advantage of Third Generation Satellite Technology
By its inherent nature, a satellite-based solution makes service ubiquitously available throughout its service area (i.e., Australia in its entirety) immediately after service commencement. This means that KaComm can make available throughout Australia its satellite-delivered National Broadband Network (NBN) extension three years after project commencement, which is well within the 5 year timeframe for the NBN rollout established by the Australian government. The third-generation technology being employed by KaComm will deliver the system capacity, user throughput, and quality of service desired for the NBN. In addition to providing ADSL2+ data-throughput rates, the third-generation network technology deployed in the gateway hubs and very-small-aperture user terminals (VSATs) contains embedded IP-fabric (Internet protocol) quality-of-service (QoS) functionality. This QoS capability enables tiered service provisioning both between subscriber classes to allow different service levels to be offered by the retail service providers, and within a subscriber’s service so that, for example, high priority real-time applications such as voice over IP (VoIP) and video conferencing receive the necessary dedicated bandwidth (Committed Information Rate – CIR) and intermix seamlessly with the subscriber’s non-real-time web browsing and email applications. This quality-of-service capability ensures that the application performance experienced by KaComm’s system users will be comparable to that experienced by terrestrial users.
Hughes Network Systems is currently developing its 3rd generation Jupiter Ka-Band system in North America using a satellite currently being manufactured by Space Systems/Loral (www.ssloral.com). Jupiter will have an aggregate capacity of 100Gbps of throughput employing up to sixty individual spot beams. To achieve maximum system efficiency and lowest cost significant design integration has occurred between the satellite and Hughes’ 3rd generation of CPE. A significant feature of the Hughes Jupiter program is Hughes investment in systems to enable to migration of existing Ku-Band subscribers to the Jupiter Ka-Band system. Space Systems/Loral (www.ssloral.com) is currently building a new third generation Ka-band satellite broadband system for ViaSat for deployment over North America. The Ka-band satellite under construction has a total throughput capacity of over 100Gbps and employs multiple spot beam architecture. Both Hughes and ViaSat are developing user terminals that utilise enhanced coding and advanced acceleration techniques. ViaSat is also developing a similar service for Europe. KaComm will take advantage of the satellite and customer premises equipment (CPE) being developed for these third generation services to obtain the benefits access to advanced system design, economies of scale, and large equipment manufacturing runs. ViaSat (www.viasat.com) is one of the leading manufacturers of customer premise equipment and is developing new terminals which will be capable of delivering service speeds equivalent to ADSL2+.
The new third-generation Ka-band satellite systems currently available or being deployed in North America and Europe provide valuable insight as to how other countries are addressing their broadband requirements. The third generation satellite programs provide a unique opportunity for Australia to benefit from the deployment of these new technologies and to meet the challenges that Australia is currently addressing.
KaComm Satellite Capability
KaComm's industry-leading, third-generation satellite service will make available ADSL2+ equivalent broadband Internet access in all regions of Australia, effectively allowing the National Broadband Network (NBN) to be extended to all Australians. The Australian households and small businesses that live and work beyond the reach of an efficient connection to a terrestrial NBN infrastructure will have access to cost-efficient ADSL2+ services. KaComm will deliver a Ka-band network service that will make available broadband Internet access at speeds of 12 Mb/s in the outbound (download) direction and 4 Mb/s in the inbound (upload) direction, well suited for symmetric applications such as high-definition video-teleconferencing. The KaComm system will have capacity to serve all of Australia’s rural households that are beyond the reach of the terrestrial NBN plus a significant number of regional and metro subscribers that for a variety of reasons are best served by an alternative to the terrestrial NBN.
One ore more satellites will be deployed into a choice of four orbital slots, 137.9°E, 150°E, 154°E or 160°E, which have been secured via appropriate spectrum filings made through the Australian Communications and Media Authority to the International Telecommunication Union. A satellite located at either of these locations would permit service coverage of the entire Australian continent. Gateways located within Australia would provide the feeder links to the spacecraft. These gateway stations will access high capacity fibre links to the internet backbone and other communications services. Satellite and system control and operations management facilities would be commissioned prior to satellite deployment.
The use of spot beam architecture provides support for localized and area specific service offerings. The use of Ka-band spectrum allows smaller customer dish sizes of as little as 70 cm diameter. Australia is an ideal environment for the use of a third generation Ka-band satellite broadband service.