Satellite-based Internet

WirelessCommunicationSystems AitorFerndez

Main features:
Appropiatemobilitysupport Globalcoverage Inherentbroadcastcapacity

Bandwithondemandcapacity

Appliable to:
Globallyscatteredusers Aeronauticalandmaritimeusers Remote,infraestructurelacking

areas Pointtomultipoint communications Multipointtomultipointcomm.

Offered services:
Broadbandaccessnetworks Connectingheterogeneous Highspeedbackbonenetworks

networks Comm.linksbetweenuserswith mobileorfixedterminals

Satellite communication Fundamentals

Asatellitesystemconsistsof:

Spacesegment

Groundsegment

Satellite communication Fundamentals

Groundsegmentconsistsof:
Gatewaystations(GS) Networkcontrolcenter(NCC) Operationcontrolcenter(OCC)

Satellite communication Fundamentals

Spacesegmentconsistsof: Satellites

Geostationaryorbit(GSO) Nongeostationaryorbit (NGSO) Mediumearthorbit(MEO)

Lowearthorbit(LEO)

Satellite communication Fundamentals

GSOOrbit:
35786Kmavobetheequator AppearsfixedtoanobserverontheEarth Sufficientforglobalcoverage 1GSOSatellitecoversonethirdofEarth surface Thisareaiscalledfootprint

Satellite communication Fundamentals

GSOOrbit:
Highlaunchingcost Largeantennasandtransmissionpower required Biggestproblem:Propagationdelay Around250280ms Undesirableforrealtimetraffic

Satellite communication Fundamentals

GSO satellite coverage

Satellite communication Fundamentals

LEOandMEO Orbits: Closertotheearthsurface

Smallerantennasandtransmissionpower required Footprintisalsosmaller Largernumberofsatellitesisnecessary Steerableantennasbecomeuseful

Satellite communication Fundamentals

MEOOrbit:
From3000KmuptotheGSOorbit Typicalroundtrippropagationdelay:110300 ms 2003000Kmaboveearthsurface Typicalroundtrippropagationdelay:2025 ms

LEOOrbit:

Satellite communication Fundamentals

Satellite communication Fundamentals

Satellitepayloads:
Responsibleofthesatellitecommunications Oncelaunched,asatelliteisimpossibleto upgrade Robust Simple Noonboardprocessing(OBP)ontraditional sats

Satellite communication Fundamentals

Satellitepayloads:

SomesatellitesallowOBP(ConformISL's) Demodulation/remodulation Decoding/recoding Transponder/beamswitching Routing Connectivityinspacewithout terrestrialresourceispossible

Satellite communication Fundamentals

Frequencybands:
MostcommonlyusedareC,Ku,andKabands Withhigherfrequency,andshorterwavelenght

Smallerantenascanbeused

Satellite communication Fundamentals

Satellite-based Internet architectures

Several implementation options due to diversity Suggestions to use hybrid GSO-NGSO network Sats can act as a backbone/Hi-speed network

ARPANET became backbone of research network

Satellite-based Internet architectures

The idea of using satellites in last mile is newer

Satellites interact with GS's May be the only access method for remote areas Bent pipe architecture (Fig 1) suffers big latency

Because of the lack of direct communication

Satellite-based Internet architectures

Bent-pipe design

Satellite-based Internet architectures

OBP and ISL's can be combined to create a network in the sky. Both combination access and backbone network. Teledisc or Iridium are examples of this kind of network. Flexibility at cost of more complex routing

Satellite-based Internet architectures

OBP and ISL

Architecture Design

Satellite-based Internet architectures

DBS Model (Direct Broadcast Satellites)

Acces internet directly by satellites. Only download Created because of internet traffic asimetry in which the server transmits much more information than in reverse Upload from the client is made via terrestrial GS's

Satellite-based Internet architectures

DBS architecture

Satellite-based Internet architectures

Astrolink

Satellite-based Internet architectures

Skybridge distribution

Satellite-based Internet architectures

Spaceway architecture scheme

Satellite-based Internet architectures

Teledisc satellite distribution

Satellite-based Internet architectures

Teledisc satellite coverage

Satellite-based Internet architectures

Iridium satellite distribution

Satellite-based Internet architectures

Iridium satellite coverage

Technical challenges

Multiple Access Control (MAC)

Isasetofrules Thisrulesdecidehowtheclientsinthe footprintofthesatelliteaccesitsuplinkchannel, whichisalimitedresource AffectstotheQoSandhigherlayers

Technical challenges

Fixed Assignement:

This is the most basic of MAC's It is based in frequency, time or code divixion basis (FDMA, TDMA and CDMA respectively) Very poor resource management. For small networks.

Technical challenges

Random Access:

Thanks to small and cheap terminals Less data usage, which turns in a bigger number of terminals which a satellite can cover. Each station transmit data regardless of the others.

Technical challenges

Demand Assignment:

Solves RA's lack of QoS providing Dynamically allocates system bandwidth depending on how many clients request access The transmission for permission becomes the problem, but it is affordable.

Technical challenges

After reservation, bandwidth is segmented in FDMA or TDMA Centralized or Distributed control Resource reservation can be explicitly or implicitly done. Priority Oriented Demand Protocol and First In First Out, combine explicit and implicit requests

Routing Issues

We will refer to LEO satellite systems, as Iridium can be. It is very attractive to be able to design a network in the sky, thanks to OBP and ISL's The routing becomes crucial.

Routing Issues

Dynamic Topology

Satellites have very little visible period to us When a satellite goes out, and another comes in, intersatellite handover happens Each satellite is able to set up 4 to 8 ISL's These can be intraplane or interplane

Routing Issues

Discrete-time Dynamic Virtual Topology Routing

DT-DVTR makes use of the periodic nature of sats Works completely offline System storages visibility data of each interval When topology changes, the best path is choosen

Routing Issues

Virtual Node (VN)

Hidew the topologycal changes from the routing protocols, despite satellites are actually moving Keeps state information, such as routing tables and user data When the satellite covering the node disappears in the horizon, the node is covered by the one that comes

Routing Issues

IP Routing at satellites

IP routing is adopted, based in the VN concept Integrates the space network with terrestrial Internet Supports IP multicast and IP QoS Despite is useful and desirable, implementation problems appear everywhere. Constantly improving.

Routing Issues

ATM Switching

Many proposed systems use ATM as network protocol for the constellation A version of DT-DVTR based in ATM is investigated, grouping the ingress and engress satellites' virtual channel connections in a VPC Possibly, IP over ATM will be implemented

Routing Issues

External Routing Issues

Internal design of communications will probably change constantly to fit manufacturers or clients. Satellite network is isolated of terrestrial network AS (astronomous system) concept. Sat=AS. Only Border Gateways will communicate with these, by BGP

Routing Issues

Unidirectional Routing

DBS is unidirectional. Traditional Routing is invalid Static routing instead of dynamic routing is an option Options:

Routing Protocol Modification Tunnelling

Routing Issues

Routing Protocol Modification

In unidirectional routing, we can only send (feeders) The clients at the other side can only receive (receivers) Make a receiver identify the potential feeders, ignoring unusable data while mantaining neighboring connection The receiver periodically delivers its own routing message to all feeders through terrestial link

Routing Issues

Tunneling:

Offers a link layer approach to hide the asymetry. A tunnel is a virtual link set between a DBS and a receiver by using encapsulation and decapsulation User encapsulates package -> sends to routing protocol via terrestrial nw -> arrives to satellite -> the tunnel decapsulates the message - > forwards it to the routing protocol

Satellite Transport

TCP/IP and UDP/IP protocols are the heart of the Internet. Their solidity and standarization makes them adaptable and unlikely to be discarded Satellite-based Internet will use UDP and TCP. TCP being connection oriented, will receive the great impact of high latencys and error rates.

Satellite Transport

TCP/IP performance over satellite

High latencies will affect TCP's functionality. Timeout based protocols such as this may severely suffer large round-trip times delivered by satellite connections Also suffer from interferences, fading, shadowing, and rain atteunation. This causes Bit Error Rate (BER)

Satellite Transport

Performance enhacenments have been developed over TCP TCP selective acknowledgement (SACK) TCP for transaction (T/TCP) Persistent TCP Connection MTU mechanism FEC

Satellite Transport

TCP extensions solve some limitation of standard TCP TCP Spoofing TCP Splitting Web Caching

THANK YOU!
Aitor Fernndez