Hybrid Satellite / Terrestrial Networks for Broadband Services
- Paper number
IAC-07-B2.4.03
- Author
Mr. D. Venugopal, Advanced Space Technologies and Services, India
- Coauthor
Dr. MG Chandrasekhar, Orbimage, Inc., United States
- Year
2007
- Abstract
With the unabated growth of Internet, broadband services continue to draw the attention of all telecom service providers. The divergent communication requirements of rural and urban areas call for a basket of multiple technologies to meet the same. Optical Fiber is expected to meet a large portion of the requirement. But for the fiber to reach all parts of a country is a long drawn and costly process. Initially, it will be limited to cities and major towns. While the next generation mobile technologies and broadband wireless access technologies are talked about as potential vehicles of providing broadband services and for easy and fast implementation of last mile access, it is also recognized that these systems suffer bandwidth and capacity limitations. Further, these are local systems which require another communications media for connecting them over long distances. Satellite networks have the ability of providing coverage over wide areas and are well suited for remote and rural areas where terrestrial communication infrastructure will take a long time to reach. Even in cities, VSATs have become popular for solving the last mile problem. Apart from providing broadband services direct to user in specific areas, they can also be used as feeder links for wireless and wired networks. The trend appears to be towards use of hybrid satellite/terrestrial systems to derive optimum network solutions. It is important that the planners of telecom infrastructure and services to adopt long term plans keeping in view the capabilities and limitations of each media. This paper brings out the capabilities of each access medium for providing broadband services and also suggests ways in which the requirements are met in a timely manner through use of hybrid satellite/ terrestrial systems and the trade-offs involved. Need for phased migration from wireless to wired media in the long term for mature markets so that the wireless and satellite capacities are released for meeting the requirements for which they are best suited for is also addressed.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-07-B2.4.03.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.