SwiftBroadband Technical workshop

Transcription

1 SwiftBroadband Technical workshop Dale Irish Head of Aviation Product Management Gwenael Marchand Aviation Technical Specialist

2 Agenda Current status Rapid growth amongst wide mix of users Network upgrades RAN 4.0 a major technology refresh Alphasat New services Flight tracking High Data Rate for fixed wing Helicopter SB200 Evolution Multivoice

3 SwiftBroadband overview More than 4000 SwiftBroadband activations since start of service, many in multi-channel installations Installed on a very wide range of aircraft types, including commercial air transport, business aviation, military, helicopters, UAVs Currently three terminal classes: High Gain (Class 6) Intermediate Gain (Class 7) Low Gain SB200 (Class 15) Worldwide coverage (apart from high polar regions) Resilient ground network owned and operated by Inmarsat Supporting voice, background IP and Streaming IP Unique rate-adaptive air interface that accommodates the range of antenna types and operating environments Robust distribution channel, offering a wide range of connectivity solutions

4 Network upgrades

5 RAN 4.0: A major technology refresh Summary Feature Description Traffic management Traffic on regional beam Persistent RAB Traffic w/out TBCNID 0 kbit/s Always admitted Priority levels Traffic remains on regional beam for low data rates Reduced signalling maintain UT registered always on No limitation on the number of UTs registered Adaptive bandwidth and priority access Asymmetric X-Stream Different bit rate forward and return LDR / MUD HDR New bearer types Multi user detection Different bit rate forward and return Allows smaller antennas e.g. omni Improved coverage Scalability and network efficiency HDR New bearer types Next generation better than X-Stream Full Channel Half Channel Better than X-Stream Better than 256kbit/s streaming

6 RAN Status On track for global roll out in the second half of this year FAT planned completed 1st week June Test RAN installed at Fucino and currently operating over EMEA EMEA planned to go live for commercial traffic August 31 Paumalu upgrade for APAC and AMER planned by Sept 30 Supporting service developments by terminal manufacturers Terminal manufacturer focus is on HDR and helicopter services LDR services will be enabled once manufacturers have terminal equipment ready Please refer to manufacturer presentations at this conference

7 RAN 4.0 What does it enable High Data Rate services Higher order modulation and coding to increase data rates Asymmetric streaming Helicopter operation Long-burst interleavers that compensate for rotor shadowing SB200 Class 4 Adds resilience at low elevation angles (operation down to 5 deg) Multi-user detection (aka interference cancellation) to increase efficiency in support of large populations of low-data-rate terminals

8 Alphasat Satellite payload Comparison with Inmarsat-4 Alphasat will provide improvements in power, capacity and available spectrum in the I-4 EMEA region The improvements include: L-Band aggregate EIRP (power): DSP resources (channels): (plus improved efficiency) L-band spectrum: C-Band spectrum: 60% increase 20% increase 52% increase 100% increase These characteristics will lead to improved performance and capacity in the busiest region, I-4 EMEA

9 Alphasat Satellite Deployment The Alphasat satellite is scheduled for launch on the 25 July 2013 Alphasat is an ocean region replacement for the current I-4F2 satellite (located at 25 E) Inmarsat intends to transfer all L-band services in EMEA from I-4F2 to Alphasat by the end of 2013, subject to timing of actual launch date The I-4F2 satellite will remain co-located at 25 E for a minimum period of six months after L-band services have moved to Alphasat Inmarsat has been working with AES manufacturers to ensure the robustness of terminal behaviour in terms of satellite selection, due to the concentrated coverage profile of the Alphasat satellite Aircraft are to be readied for Alphasat operation by 1 Oct 2013

10 Alphasat satellite Extended L-band (XL) capable terminals Requirements for XL support by SwiftBroadband user terminals (Alphasat provides an additional 7 MHz of new spectrum) New Type Approvals From 2013 Single channel systems only No requirement for multi-channel SB to support XL due to intermods New Sales No requirement to modify existing installations or cease onward sale of existing configurations Install option from airframe manufacturers, where appropriate equipment variants are available

11 SGSN upgrade Inmarsat requires to upgrade the SGSN in order to: Enhance features in the current implementation Maintain a valid support contract with our SGSN supplier Initial SGSN upgrade performed in May 2012 paused to address compatibility issues with older versions of terminal software stack Our understanding is that the terminal upgrades are now largely completed SGSN Upgrade Status Upgrade reinitiated in March 2013 SGSN CP00 is currently operational on EMEA (Burum and Fucino). APAC and AMER (Paumalu) upgrade has now been scheduled for July, waiting for prerequisite upgrades to be performed first SGSN CP03 is planned to be rolled out globally starting 2nd September 2013 with the exact sequence and dates to be communicated over the coming months

12 New services

13 Flight tracking Service development Enables GPS information reported by the user terminals to be available via secure portal to DPs who can create value-added services Users must opt-in for the position information to be released to the DP UTs report GPS position when the terminal first registers on the network and then subsequently, when it has moved at least 10 km (configurable) since its previous position report; typically every 2 minutes in flight. A trial service is currently in operation. We intend to introduce a wider commercial offering via the SEP platform in 2014

14 SB fixed wing HDR Drivers Full channel allocated to user supporting data rates in excess of 600kbit/s Support both full channel (200kHz) and half-channel (100kHz) operation Asymmetric services to cost-effectively map with the user s traffic flow Timeline Pricing to be communicated by July RAN 4.0 test release in EMEA by June, first over the air test in Sept Service introduction planned Q1 2014

15 SB Helicopter Operation Class 6 and Class 7 HDR Background Builds on the current Swift64 user base (military + SAR) There are already a number of helicopters that have upgraded to Class 6 and manage limited Background IP connectivity (~150kbit/s) HDR enables error-free streaming class services We envisage a cost-effective concept of operation whereby voice and (background) data connectivity is maintained over the duration of the flight and HDR is enabled for mission critical high-bandwidth apps Status RAN 4.0 implementation of HDR bearers in EMEA supports a programme of testing with Eurocopter during September Service introduction planned Q1 2014

16 SwiftBroadband Multi-channel allocation Study launched with the University of Roma Kick-off 9 th May 2013 Stage 1: characterisation of traffic pattern from many passengers on an aircraft working through one SwiftBroadband terminal Stage 2: characterisation of traffic pattern from many passengers on an aircraft working through four SwiftBroadband terminals Stage 3: characterisation of traffic pattern from many passengers on an aircraft working through one terminal, where the terminal is sharing with other terminals Results by end of August In-service support Continued support to partners through investigations by Inmarsat Operations and Customer Care

17 SB200 Evolution Drivers Compact equipment Supporting safety services, multivoice and helicopter operation Blade antenna, with robust operation down to 5 deg elevation Security architecture to ensure data segregation Anticipate up to 100 lbs in weight + drag savings Dependencies RAN implementation of LDR bearers will be validated once terminal manufacturer equipment is available Schedule for commercial service introduction is dependent on equipment manufacturer timescales

18 SB200 evolution ARINC 781 configurations agreed and published as A781-6

19 SwiftBroadband Multi-voice Multi-voice infrastructure established Service introduction dependent on terminal manufacturer plans Two levels of service provision Standard SwiftBroadband multi-voice Provide 3 additional lines per SwiftBroadband channel (4 total) Enhanced SwiftBroadband multi-voice Provides the ability to scale up from the 3 additional up to a further 5 additional lines per SwiftBroadband channel (9 total) First call over AMBE circuit switched voice Subsequent calls are seamlessly switched to packetized voice infrastructure Infrastructure will support outbound per line billing from 10 July MSC upgrade will be required to enable inbound direct dialing to specific handsets

20 Thank you