Jan 29, 2010, post by awatrobski
Internet in space moved one step closer to reality after a successful in-orbit test of Cisco Systems’ radiation-proof router mounted on a commercial satellite. The test was part of Cisco’s overall Internet Routing in Space (IRIS) project that will eventually route IP voice, video, and data traffic between satellites rather than through terrestrial networks.
“There is a very strong potential for IRIS to revolutionize communications satellite architecture,” informed Don Brown of Intelsat General. “IP changes everything.” The company’s Intelsat 14 communications satellite–which escorted the piggybacking router into space–launched on November 23, 2009.
Cisco’s IRIS project manager Greg Pelton informed that a space-based router can prioritize more important traffic by intelligently allocating bandwidth. This means that bandwidth no longer in use by one company can be switched over to another consumer. Space-based routers will also allow telecommunications companies to offer high-bandwidth, on-demand services.
Now that the first router is active, Cisco will hand over the technology to the Department of Defense for its evaluation–this will be used for military purposes for around three months. Once that is completed, Cisco plans to work with the technology for the next year to determine its use in the private sector.
Jan 05, 2010, post by Artur Ślesik
The leading ISP provider in the Democratic of Congo, Microcom, was acclaimed as the best improved network on the continent during AfricaCom 2009 Congress and Exhibition for its last year’s work on the country’s Internet connectivity.
Microcom uses Intelsat’s GlobaConnexsm managed service and global satellite network as a vehicle to deliver faster, more efficient, cost-effective and reliable Internet connectivity to meet the growing demand for these services in Africa.
Founded in 1982, Microcom is the leading Internet access service provider in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo Brazzaville, with a private satellite network in twelve cities in DRC. In each city, Internet access is provided by a Wimax broadband wireless access network designed for providing high speed-data to the Internet users. Microcom is also the builder of the first African WiMax network with more than 6,000 CPEs installed.
Dec 08, 2009, post by Satellite News
Cisco, the Department of Defense (DOD) and Intelsat General Corp. reached an agreement with the launch of the Intelsat 14 (IS-14) satellite, which contains an Internet router that is able to operate in space.
The router onboard IS-14 is intended to demonstrate Internet Routing in Space (IRIS) capabilities to the military.
Conventional satellite services typically deliver physical layer capacity akin to a leased line in the sky. The latency induced by the 44,600 mile round-trip path for geosynchronous satellites, however, reduces the throughput of TCP/IP-based applications, which includes the bulk of Internet traffic. The theoretical download speed of a Web page tops out according to the latency even if bandwidth and other network resources are plentiful.
Satellite networks are often deployed in a hub-and-spoke configuration where traffic from a remote site passes through a fixed teleport earth station, or hub. If the traffic is then redirected back to another remote site in the same network, a double satellite hop occurs and the round-trip latency doubles to roughly one second, exacerbating the throughput issue.
IRIS can mitigate such effects by removing the double hop and, more importantly, improve the delivery reliability.
About Intelsat.
Intelsat is the leading provider of fixed satellite services worldwide. Since its founding in 1964, Intelsat has provided transmission services for milestone events, including the global delivery of video signals of the first moonwalk, providing the “hot line” connecting the White House and the Kremlin and transmitting live television coverage of every Olympics since 1968.
Intelsat has one of the largest, most flexible and most reliable satellite fleets in the world, covering over 99% of the world’s population. Intelsat operates more than approximately 50 satellites with a fully integrated satellite operations model that features two operations centers connected by redundant fiber, resulting in a robust monitoring and control system that is unrivaled in the industry. A terrestrial network of teleports, points of presence and leased fiber links that Intelsat uses to carry traffic and provide satellite access for its customers, complements its satellite fleet.
