ViaSat-3: Satellite Connectivity for the World
With the ever increasing demand for connectivity around the world, the need for more satellite capacity is growing. One of the companies increasing their global coverage is Viasat with their ViaSat-3 constellation. I recently talked to Craig Miller, President of Government Systems at Viasat to hear how they will help connect people to the information they need.
Q: You have just launched the America’s section of ViaSat-3, Asia and Europe to follow?
A: Just last month, we just launched the America’s ViaSat-3 covering north and south America, parts of the Pacific and parts of the Atlantic. Later this year we expect to launch Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) version that will cover this along with the rest of the Atlantic and anticipate in the first half of next year we will launch the Asia-Pacific (APAC) satellite. So about a year from now we have a full constellation of ViaSat-3’s in GEO orbit that gives us global Ka band coverage excluding the poles.
Q: What are the main markets for these Satellites, Governmental, Business, Consumer?
A: This is one of the things that is unique about Viasat and ViaSat-3 in particular. The answer is all of the above. We have users from senior leaders, including leaders of countries, that use our network services to connect on their aircraft and that expands all way down to residential internet users. We have a network with hundreds of thousands of users covering all applications: planes, trains, boats, automobiles, enterprises, government, commercial and basically everywhere in between. We have a very diverse network that has not only government and commercial but a variety of different platforms including space. That mix of different kinds of users in every single domain is what makes Viasat and the ViaSat-3 network different.
Q: Do you have direct satellite to satellite connectivity?
A: One of the things that is really unique about ViaSat-3 is that we are creating a capability that can treat a LEO satellite like an aircraft and we have space-based terminals for the network that can go on LEO spacecraft that allow connection with ViaSat-3 to relay information up and then back to the ground in real time. So if you think about an earth observation satellite that is imaging a part of the world, it doesn’t have to wait to fly over a gateway, it can just use a inter-satellite link and talk directly through ViaSat-3. This allows it to have a basically instantaneous connection to the ground, you can stream data off it and give real time command and control.
We have also recently announced a program with the US Airforce Research Laboratory where we will demonstrate this LEO to GEO space-relay capability via ViaSat-3 to show its value for defence applications. (Read More)
There is an existing program we have with NASA, which is called NASA CSP (Communications Services Project). Basically NASA has a purpose built system called TDRS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite) that does this and has done this since the 80’s and it was actually built to provide communications to the space shuttle. That system is ageing out and they are replacing it with commercial capabilities to do the same thing and we are one of the providers that is going to do that.
We are going to support DoD military assets, we will do it for US government civil assets, NASA, and we’ll also do it for commercial and private assets. Like the theme with the rest of the network, we support all kinds of users in all kinds of domains. We’re very unique in that way, no one else has the diversity of users that we do.
Q: Part of the benefit of ViaSat-3 is that you can have more smaller teleports, rather than traditional setup?
A: That’s one of the things that is really different about the ViaSat-3 system. We talk allot about the spacecraft with ViaSat-3, but really the whole network has been design and optimized to work together. So ViaSat-3 is a unique spacecraft but it also has a very unique gateway infrastructure. Typically the satellite ground infrastructure that you are used to is a teleport with a huge 13m antenna that has redundant everything, and power and fiber and fences and security guards and is almost as exquisite as the space asset. For ViaSat-3 we have taken almost the exact opposite tact, instead of having 1-3 ,we have many hundreds of individual gateways. Each gateway is very small, very inexpensive, very simple. It almost looks like a VSAT terminal itself. It’s usually a 1.8m dish, typically co-located with cell sites and proliferated across an entire continent, and so they are spread very far apart. There’s many hundreds of them and so what happens is the gateways stop becoming a single point of failure. In fact we don’t call them gateways anymore, we call them SANs (Satellite Access Nodes). Because they are different we have rebranded them as SANs and there’s many hundreds across the network. It allows us to do some really interesting things since there spread across the continent. Weather can often be a factor at Ka band such as rain fade. Since there are so many SANs, and they are so far away from each other, it is very rare for weather to affect the entire gateway network. Usually there is a pretty significant proportion of them that are always in clear sky and so what we can do is automatically switch away from the ones with weather impairments. It is always clear sky on the gateway side of the link, so we’ve taken weather out half of the equation on the satellite system and that is one of the cool things that you get with a network like this. It also adds redundancy. If someone attacks the gateways or if someone destroys part of the gateways it has almost no effect on the system because we just automatically work around it. Whereas with a traditional system if someone attacks a gateway, it is a vulnerability in the system and you could take it down by just getting one or two gateways. You could never do this to the ViaSat-3 network.
Q: Does this add a lot of complexity for users of the ViaSat-3 network?
A: So, in the design of the system and architecture of the system it is a higher level of complexity, but after the system is built and from point of view of the users it is entirely transparent to them. Viasat manages the reaggregation of all the data on the ground and we just present a fiber interface to our users, so it is just like any other network. We have network aggregation points throughout the world and it’s just a fiber spigot from us everywhere. So it’s completely transparent to the users, they get all the benefits without the complexity.
Q: You have this set up in the US at the moment for the America’s ViaSat-3, do you have the same configuration for the other satellites?
A: Yes, so for the ViaSat-3 EMEA satellite, the gateways are spread throughout western Europe and are aggregated in the UK. For the APAC satellite, the gateways and aggregation are all in Australia, so these are where the points of presence will be. Viasat has a global fiber network and global MPLS network, so we can move the data wherever it needs to go for whatever customer.
Q: On the end-user side of things, will this all interface with existing equipment?
A: We do have a brand new set of terminals for ViaSat-3 but a vast majority of the existing terminals that work on ViaSat-1 and ViaSat-2 are forward compatible and can work on ViaSat-3 as well. With the new terminals there is some new technology that makes them even better. They all work on ViaSat-3 but are also backwards compatible with our existing network, so by and large you will not have to replace terminals. We are trying to be very flexible with end-users and make it as frictionless as possible to use not only this network but also our existing network and to use them together.
ViaSat-3 Constellation Rendering
Q: Will there be interoperability with the existing Visat-1 / Viasat-2 network?
A: In our mind, the Viasat network is a network served by any of our satellites. A given user might be on any of our satellites at any time and we think about it as multi paths of resilience. One satellite’s beam might be full, whereas another satellite has a beam that is not full so we’ll move some users on and load balance. Another scenario could be that the satellite might have higher speeds and one user needs high speeds and another doesn’t, so well put them on the best satellite for their use case. We have a very comprehensive management network that load balances and optimizes on individual satellites, but also on satellites as a whole. This is also one of the things that is really exciting about the Inmarsat acquisition. Now not only do we have all of our satellites, we have the fleet of 15 Inmarsat satellites that we can draw from as well. From pretty much any point on earth within the next year you will be able to see a ViaSat-3, with the incredible coverage and capabilities that this can provide, but will also have 1 or 2 other Viasat or Inmarsat satellites that will be options for roaming at the same time. We will have this incredible breadth and depth that going to give really powerful capabilities and great deal of resilience for our customers.
Q: You’re not going to be a ViaSat-3 customer, you will be a Viasat customer?
A: Exactly, and in some cases there might be some things that only ViaSat-3 enables like really high speeds, but for users that don’t need this they might be on another satellite. ViaSat-3 also has some really interesting resilience features making it very difficult to interfere with. If you are in an environment where there is electromagnetic interference, whether intentional or unintentional, you might be on ViaSat-3 as it has built-in automated mitigations whereas other satellites might not. Or if one satellite is not working, you can just move onto another one at any given time. We’re a network provider, like on your cell phone. You don’t know what cell tower you’re using, it just works and that is how the Viasat network is going to be. You might be on any satellite and its just going to work for you.
Q: It sounds like a exciting time with the inclusion of Inmarsat and access to their network.
A: It really is, it’s transformational for us. We’ve being waiting a long time to get here and now the combination of the depth of ViaSat-3 and the breadth of Inmarsat network, it’s going to be a really special time for us going forward. It really is our belief that Viasat and Inmarsat together are better than the sum of each individually. We are really excited about, not only the existing maritime and safety of flight airborne that Inmarsat do, we think there is a vast potential for direct-to-device services in L-band. Inmarsat’s L-Band spectrum is unique, they basically have more of it and it is dedicated to be used in a way that gives us more flexibility than anyone else in the L-band spectrum. We think that we are going to be able to use this to create really unique features for users that are after direct-to-device connectivity. In addition, Inmarsat also offers robust Ka-band services for maritime and airborne platforms, so we’re excited about being able to provide a portfolio of services to their customers as well as ours.
Q: You briefly mentioned direct-to-device, do you see that becoming a much bigger market?
A: Yes, user handsets and user equipment, including commercial user equipment like cell phones, we see that as a multi-billion dollar market going forward. We think because of our technology and because of the assets and spectrum that we have, along with our partnerships, we are going to be able to provide very unique, very differentiating capabilities that no-one else can match and we are really excited about this market.