Rocket Science made simple George Nicola Aviation Technical Manager
Agenda I-5 Overview Building the best communications channel possible Shannon s Channel Capacity More power Coverage comparison More bandwidth Ka and Ku frequency allocations Summary
Global, mobile and reliable Over 20 years of service to aviation Global coverage Seamless handover within and between satellite regions State-of-the-art mobility management Optimised ground network Atlantic Ocean Lino Lakes (US) & Winnipeg (CA) Indian Ocean Fucino (IT) & Nemea (GR) Pacific Ocean Warkworth & Auckland (NZ) High network availability Single company providing service Global Xpress: 3 Geostationary Ka-band satellites
Building the best communications channel
Shannon s capacity theory Back to basics C = W log 2 1 + PP NN Where C = Transmit rate (bits per second) W = Bandwidth P = Power N = Noise Communication providers optimise the application of these three parameters for their users needs
What does the formula mean? More power Higher throughput More bandwidth
More power 7
Smaller beams = higher power Inmarsat 5 uses spot beams to evenly deliver higher power across the footprint and offer a global, consistent service Ku-band satellites currently use wide beams a number of which have a significantly larger power variance across their coverage Inmarsat 5 power distribution Higher power equates to higher throughput available to the user Intelsat power distribution
Global power delivery and management Inmarsat 5 has two complementary communication payloads providing global coverage Global Service Beams 89 available spot beams per satellite with 72 active at any one time GSB s can be doubled up in anticipated regions of high traffic High Capacity Payload Steerable beams overlaying additional power and bandwidth to specific areas of high usage on-demand Network optimised for high speed mobile global connectivity One network infrastructure and provider Homogenous design built for the mobile market Seamless spot beam handovers Consistent service across the globe Inmarsat 5 Global Spot Beam Coverage With higher uniform power distribution and a high power overlay when required. Consistently higher power means consistently better throughputs available for the user One satellite and ground infrastructure provider means seamless services
Ku Patchwork power delivery Existing Ku-band satellites Wide beams used to provide coverage Power level of wide beams vary across the footprint Non-uniform power distribution - power falls off as you approach edge of coverage Coverage formed by a patchwork mobile network A patchwork of different satellites from different providers means a mix of varying capabilities which leads to non-uniform performance The patchwork network infrastructure results in more frequent satellite handovers and service interruptions for the users Intelsat Ku-band satellites (as shown) provide wide beams with varying power levels across the footprint Satellite handovers across different satellite networks will mean user service interruption 10
Intelsat EPIC Intelsat EPIC (IS-29e) platform operates spot beams in specific regions with wide beams covering other sectors High power in limited regions Low power in others Level of Service available varies from spot beam to wide beam Currently IS-29e (available 2015) is under construction, IS-33e is on order Intelsat EPIC available only in a very limited coverage area for HTS Remaining coverage has low performance compared to GX Aviation Global Inmarsat 5 coverage Uniform Inmarsat Services Vs. Non-uniform Regional Services
More bandwidth
What is bandwidth contention Bandwidth contention is the same as overbooking a flight Deliberately oversell tickets on the basis not all passengers will show but when they do someone gets left behind! In order to avoid bandwidth contention the communication system is needed to provide: Maximum amount of global capacity Built for purpose Frequency (GHz) 11. 8 12. 0 12. 2 12. 4 13. 17. 18. 18. 18. 18. 18. 19. 19. 19. 8 14.0 14.2 14.4 14.6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 19. 20. 6 19.8 0 20. 2 20. 4 27. 6 27. 8 28. 0 28. 2 28. 4 28. 6 28. 8 29. 0 29. 2 29. 29. 4 29.6 8 30. 0 Usable Kuband Usable Kuband for mobile satellit e service s, Europe and Americ as Usable Kuband for mobile satellit e service s, Asia 13 Ka-band usable spectrum 1.5GHz for Satelliteto-SAS Kabanband Ka- usable Usable spectru Spectru m m 500MH 500MH z - High z - Capacit Global y Beam Payload Traffic Ka-band usable spectrum 1.5GHz for Satelliteto-SAS Kaband usable spectru m 500MH z - High Capacit y Kaband Usable Spectru m 500MH z - Global Beam Payload Traffic
More spectrum Larger Ka-band frequency allocation not currently being shared therefore the chances of bandwidth contention are reduced significantly Ku-band systems disadvantaged by: Their saturated frequency band Ku satellite density already deployed along the GEO arc do not provide sufficient and adequate free slots to accommodate forecasted and in some cases current traffic demands The availability of Ku-band transponder capacity for aviation service providers is already limited in many geographical areas Inmarsat 5 spot beam architecture allows uniform distribution of capacity and bandwidth Evenly distributes capacity across the GSB spot beams and implements a four colour frequency re-use scheme Frequency re-use allows frequencies to be re-used across the satellite footprint and further optimises the allocated spectrum
Spreading the bandwidth Inmarsat 5 spot beams uniquely distribute transponder capacity evenly across the Global coverage footprint with built-in flexibility Global Service Beams in high traffic areas can be doubled up In regions where traffic demand exceeds the assigned capacity steerable High Capacity Payload (HCP) can be overlaid Inmarsat 5 provides consistent high performance transponder bandwidth across the global coverage when compared with Ku-band satellites With a completely homogenous network all owned and operated by Inmarsat for mobile users
GX to Ku equivalent capacity comparison Ku (IS-22) 12 x 36MHz = 432MHz Allocated amongst various services GX 38 spot beams cover the same regions 2 x 32 MHz x 38 beams = 2.4GHz Additional scalable High Capacity Overlay available with up to 8 x 100MHz channels available in a specific region 2 x 100MHx x 8 channels = 1.6GHz Dedicated to mobile service use
Users want more service How to handle traffic growth? Solution description GX Ku Doubling of resources reducing the density Yes Only Epic Airline Equivalent - Adding another aircraft of equal size and capacity to a route Steerable overlay reducing the density Yes No Airline Equivalent - Adding another aircraft of larger size and capacity to a route Hosted Payload Bandwidth is available and use frequency re-use Yes Easy and cost Limited options and efficient for considerable Inmarsat 5 in the interference risk Ka-band Limited frequency Airline Equivalent Use a Code Share to increase the route capacity Launch another satellite Yes Replace with more efficient higher cost technology Airline Equivalent Build another airport in a completely unpopulated area 17
Summary
Summary Inmarsat is the only single operator of global Ka-band high throughput mobile satellite services Global coverage with a single homogenous network and terminal built for mobile services Operating in uncontended spectrum with considerably greater capacity than existing satellite services With the flexibility and capacity to satisfy today and tomorrows connectivity requirements