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104-569: SES Broadband (previously ASTRA2Connect ) is a two-way satellite broadband Internet service available across Europe, which launched in March 2007, and uses the Astra series of geostationary satellites . SES Broadband is owned and operated by SES Broadband Services, a subsidiary of SES , based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg . SES Broadband provides high-speed Internet access (at up to 10 Mbit/s) at

208-672: A core network /backbone network; each subsequent network handles more traffic than the last. Mobile service providers also have similar networks. A mailbox provider is an organization that provides services for hosting electronic mail domains with access to storage for mail boxes. It provides email servers to send, receive, accept, and store email for end users or other organizations. Many mailbox providers are also access providers, while others are not (e.g., Gmail , Yahoo! Mail , Outlook.com , AOL Mail , Po box ). The definition given in RFC 6650 covers email hosting services , as well as

312-489: A flat rate cost to end users, along with Voice over IP , IPTV , and content-on-demand facilities, without any requirement for a landline, cable or terrestrial wireless connection. Until March 2012, SES Broadband was called 'ASTRA2Connect' and the operating company 'ASTRA Broadband Services'. The name was changed in line with the rebranding of parent company SES. The SES Broadband service makes broadband Internet access available to homes in rural locations or otherwise beyond

416-441: A tier 1 carrier . In reality, the situation is often more complex. ISPs with more than one point of presence (PoP) may have separate connections to an upstream ISP at multiple PoPs, or they may be customers of multiple upstream ISPs and may have connections to each one of them at one or more point of presence. Transit ISPs provide large amounts of bandwidth for connecting hosting ISPs and access ISPs. Border Gateway Protocol

520-426: A Service or SaaS applications as well as in other forms of online work. Functions, like live interactive access to a distant computer—such as virtual private networks , can be affected by the high latency. Many TCP protocols were not designed to work in high-latency environments. Medium Earth orbit (MEO) and low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations do not have such long delays, as the satellites are closer to

624-902: A Tier 1 ISP. Transit ISPs may use OTN ( Optical transport network ) or SDH/SONET (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy/Synchronous Optical Networking) with DWDM ( Dense wavelength-division multiplexing ) for transmitting data over optical fiber. For transmissions in a metro area such as a city and for large customers such as data centers, special pluggable modules in routers, conforming to standards such as CFP , QSFP-DD, OSFP, 400ZR or OpenZR+ may be used alongside DWDM and many vendors have proprietary offerings. Long-haul networks transport data across longer distances than metro networks, such as through submarine cables, or connecting several metropolitan networks. Optical line systems and packet optical transport systems can also be used for data transmission. Ultra long haul transmission transports data over distances of over 1500 kilometers. A virtual ISP (VISP)

728-465: A fixed area for a period of up to five years, and able to provide both continuous surveillance to ground assets as well as to service extremely low-latency communications networks. This project was cancelled in 2012 before it became operational. Onboard batteries would charge during daylight hours through solar panels covering the wings and would provide power to the plane during night. Ground-based satellite internet dishes would relay signals to and from

832-513: A means of combating limited bandwidth on airplanes and offering passengers usable internet speeds. As of 2024, companies providing home internet service in the United States via satellite included ViaSat , through its Exede brand, EchoStar , through subsidiary HughesNet , Starlink , and Project Kuiper . The EU plans to commence the IRIS² project in the 2020s. As of 2023, China

936-834: A new generation of high-powered GEO satellites positioned 35,786 kilometres (22,236 mi) above the equator, operating in K a -band (18.3–30 GHz) mode. These new purpose-built satellites are designed and optimized for broadband applications, employing many narrow spot beams, which target a much smaller area than the broad beams used by earlier communication satellites. This spot beam technology allows satellites to reuse assigned bandwidth multiple times which can enable them to achieve much higher overall capacity than conventional broad beam satellites. The spot beams can also increase performance and consequential capacity by focusing more power and increased receiver sensitivity into defined concentrated areas. Spot beams are designated as one of two types: subscriber spot beams, which transmit to and from

1040-423: A number of ground stations known as gateways that relay Internet data to and from the satellite via radio waves ( microwave ), and further ground stations to serve each subscriber, with a small antenna and transceiver . Other components of a satellite Internet system include a modem at the user end which links the user's network with the transceiver, and a centralized network operations centre (NOC) for monitoring

1144-480: A paper in Wireless World in 1945. The first satellite to successfully reach geostationary orbit was Syncom3 , built by Hughes Aircraft for NASA and launched on August 19, 1963. Succeeding generations of communications satellites featuring larger capacities and improved performance characteristics were adopted for use in television delivery, military applications and telecommunications purposes. Following

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1248-564: A protective radome . This enables the two-way satellite link to be maintained even while the vessel is underway. The service provider for maritime users across all Europe supplies broadband and the hardware for a fixed monthly subscription. Satellite internet Following the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik 1 , by the Soviet Union in October 1957, the US successfully launched

1352-502: A range of technologies to connect users to their network. Available technologies have ranged from computer modems with acoustic couplers to telephone lines, to television cable (CATV), Wi-Fi , and fiber optics. For users and small businesses, traditional options include copper wires to provide dial-up , DSL, typically asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), cable modem or Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) (typically basic rate interface ). Using fiber-optics to end users

1456-514: A region. ISPs may engage in peering , where multiple ISPs interconnect at peering points or Internet exchange points (IXPs), allowing routing of data between each network, without charging one another for the data transmitted—data that would otherwise have passed through a third upstream ISP, incurring charges from the upstream ISP. ISPs requiring no upstream and having only customers (end customers or peer ISPs) are called Tier 1 ISPs . Network hardware, software and specifications, as well as

1560-557: A result, these companies often became the dominant ISPs in their service areas, and what was once a highly competitive ISP market became effectively a monopoly or duopoly in countries with a commercial telecommunications market, such as the United States. In 1995, NSFNET was decommissioned removing the last restrictions on the use of the Internet to carry commercial traffic and network access points were created to allow peering arrangements between commercial ISPs. On 23 April 2014,

1664-473: A satellite link to carry IP data in both directions between the central hub and remote terminals. At the hub, routers connect to the Internet backbone and IP data is embedded in a DVB-S2 format carrier to be uplinked to the satellite from SES' teleport and, from there, downlinked to the remote terminal where the signal is received with a domestic-type dish for the satellite internet modem, which extracts

1768-453: A space-based optical mesh network that will enable seamless network management and continuity of service. The satellite has its own set of antennas to receive communication signals from Earth and to transmit signals to their target location. These antennas and transponders are part of the satellite's "payload", which is designed to receive and transmit signals to and from various places on Earth. What enables this transmission and reception in

1872-446: A tier 2 or tier 1 ISP usually has a larger network than the contracting ISP or is able to provide the contracting ISP with access to parts of the Internet the contracting ISP by itself has no access to. In the simplest case, a single connection is established to an upstream ISP and is used to transmit data to or from areas of the Internet beyond the home network; this mode of interconnection is often cascaded multiple times until reaching

1976-503: A typical one-way connection latency of 500 to 700 ms from the user to the ISP, or about 1,000 to 1,400 ms latency for the total round-trip time (RTT) back to the user. This is more than most dial-up users experience at typically 150–200 ms total latency, and much higher than the typical 15 to 40 ms latency experienced by users of other high-speed Internet services, such as cable or VDSL . For geostationary satellites, there

2080-474: Is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator (0° latitude), with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero (i.e. a "circular orbit"). An object in a geostationary orbit appears motionless, at a fixed position in the sky, to ground observers. Launchers often place communications satellites and weather satellites in geostationary orbits, so that

2184-497: Is a solid communications platform. The industrial implementation of SES Broadband allows for a SCADA network to be realized with an always-on, secure two-way satellite connection to the IP backbone, with a guaranteed bandwidth (and symmetrical download/upload speeds if required) for a flat fee. The network is independent of other terrestrial communications links and can operate from remote sites, and across all of Europe. SES Broadband uses

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2288-534: Is an operation that purchases services from another ISP, sometimes called a wholesale ISP in this context, which allow the VISP's customers to access the Internet using services and infrastructure owned and operated by the wholesale ISP. VISPs resemble mobile virtual network operators and competitive local exchange carriers for voice communications. Free ISPs are Internet service providers that provide service free of charge. Many free ISPs display advertisements while

2392-451: Is another option, including cellular and satellite Internet access . Access providers may have an MPLS ( Multiprotocol label switching ) or formerly a SONET backbone network , and have a ring or mesh network topology in their core network. The networks run by access providers can be considered wide area networks . ISPs can have access networks , aggregation networks/aggregation layers/distribution layers/edge routers/metro networks and

2496-434: Is called Fiber To The Home or similar names. Customers with more demanding requirements (such as medium-to-large businesses, or other ISPs) can use higher-speed DSL (such as single-pair high-speed digital subscriber line ), Ethernet , metropolitan Ethernet , gigabit Ethernet , Frame Relay , ISDN Primary Rate Interface , ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) and synchronous optical networking (SONET). Wireless access

2600-433: Is done at IXPs, while private peering can be done with direct links between networks. Internet service providers in many countries are legally required (e.g., via Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) in the U.S.) to allow law enforcement agencies to monitor some or all of the information transmitted by the ISP, or even store the browsing history of users to allow government access if needed (e.g. via

2704-553: Is in the process of developing its own, state-owned, satellite internet constellation , run by Chinasat . India’s main offerings in the space is Oneweb and JioSpaceFiber . And is as of 2023, entertaining licenses for Starlink and Project Kuiper. Satellite Internet generally relies on three primary components: a satellite – historically in geostationary orbit (or GEO) but now increasingly in Low Earth orbit (LEO) or Medium Earth orbit MEO)  –

2808-533: Is insignificant and while surfing on the Internet, it is easy to accept a half-second 'time to reflect'." SES Broadband for Maritime was launched in September 2009 to provide satellite internet access for vessels at sea and on inland waterways in the European region. The maritime service is intended for pleasure crafts, fishing and coastal ships, ferries and smaller commercial cargo carriers, operating mainly in

2912-449: Is lost can be reduced by increasing the size of the satellite communication dish so as to gather more of the satellite signal on the downlink and also to provide a stronger signal on the uplink. In other words, increasing antenna gain through the use of a larger parabolic reflector is one way of increasing the overall channel gain and, consequently, the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, which allows for greater signal loss due to rain fade without

3016-420: Is no way to eliminate latency, but the problem can be somewhat mitigated in Internet communications with TCP acceleration features that shorten the apparent round trip time (RTT) per packet by splitting ("spoofing") the feedback loop between the sender and the receiver. Certain acceleration features are often present in recent technology developments embedded in satellite Internet equipment. Latency also impacts

3120-543: Is obtained by rotating the iLNB within its mount on the dish). The IPmodem is a small plastic-cased mains powered unit with F connectors for connection to both receive and transmit sections of the iLNB. It requires no software on the end user's PC and connects directly, or via a LAN using a standard 8P8C (RJ-45) Ethernet connector. The terminal acts as a DHCP server for the computer, and provides LED indicators for power, satellite link alarm, LAN connection, LAN data, satellite signal received and satellite transmission. With

3224-415: Is the delay between requesting data and the receipt of a response, or in the case of one-way communication, between the actual moment of a signal's broadcast and the time it is received at its destination. A radio signal takes about 120 milliseconds to reach a geostationary satellite and then 120 milliseconds to reach the ground station, so nearly 1/4 of a second overall. Typically, during perfect conditions,

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3328-447: Is then routed to a specific ground location through a channel known as a carrier. Beside the payload, the other main component of a communications satellite is called the bus, which comprises all equipment required to move the satellite into position, supply power, regulate equipment temperatures, provide health and tracking information, and perform numerous other operational tasks. Along with dramatic advances in satellite technology over

3432-576: Is used by routers to connect to other networks, which are identified by their autonomous system number. Tier 2 ISPs depend on Tier 1 ISPs and often have their own networks, but must pay for transit or internet access to Tier 1 ISPs, but may peer or send transit without paying, to other Tier 2 ISPs. Tier 3 ISPs do not engage in peering and only purchase transit from Tier 2 and Tier 1 ISPs, and often specialize in offering internet service to end customers such as businesses and individuals. Some organizations act as their own ISPs and purchase transit directly from

3536-431: Is usually undertaken in one of three ways, using: In May 2022, Kazakhstani mobile network operator, Kcell , and satellite owner and operator, SES used SES's O3b MEO satellite constellation to demonstrate that MEO satellites could be used to provide high-speed mobile internet to remote regions of Kazakhstan for reliable video calling, conferencing and streaming, and web browsing, with a latency five times lower than on

3640-536: The Astra 19.2°E or the Astra 28.2°E positions. Satellite broadband can provide an Internet connection for industrial data acquisition and control applications, where reliability and security are paramount, to ensure a constant data flow. For employment in industrial processes such as electricity generation, water management, refining, oil and natural gas drilling, automatic fabrication, and transportation, where use of SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) computer monitoring and control are used, SES Broadband

3744-665: The Communications Act of 1934 and Section 706 in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to the Internet. The FCC Chairman, Tom Wheeler , commented, "This is no more a plan to regulate the Internet than the First Amendment is a plan to regulate free speech. They both stand for the same concept." On 12 March 2015, the FCC released the specific details of the net neutrality rules. On 13 April 2015,

3848-513: The Explorer 1 satellite in 1958. The first commercial communications satellite was Telstar 1 , built by Bell Labs and launched in July 1962. The idea of a geosynchronous satellite —one that could orbit the Earth above the equator and remain fixed by following the Earth's rotation—was first proposed by Herman Potočnik in 1928 and popularised by the science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke in

3952-517: The Internet . ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned , non-profit , or otherwise privately owned . Internet services typically provided by ISPs can include internet access , internet transit , domain name registration, web hosting , and colocation . The Internet (originally ARPAnet ) was developed as a network between government research laboratories and participating departments of universities. Other companies and organizations joined by direct connection to

4056-733: The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 in the United Kingdom ). Furthermore, in some countries ISPs are subject to monitoring by intelligence agencies. In the U.S., a controversial National Security Agency program known as PRISM provides for broad monitoring of Internet users traffic and has raised concerns about potential violation of the privacy protections in the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution . Modern ISPs integrate

4160-522: The backbone , or by arrangements through other connected companies, sometimes using dialup tools such as UUCP . By the late 1980s, a process was set in place towards public, commercial use of the Internet. Some restrictions were removed by 1991, shortly after the introduction of the World Wide Web . During the 1980s, online service providers such as CompuServe , Prodigy , and America Online (AOL) began to offer limited capabilities to access

4264-587: The (SES) satellite capacity, a DVB/IP Internet platform, uplink services, Internet backbone connectivity, subscriber activation and monitoring, and technical support for the service provider. The first service provider in Germany was ISP, Filiago and in the UK, BeyonDSL. In the UK, customers of BeyonDSL purchase the SES Broadband terminal equipment for £300, pay a £50 registration fee and a monthly fee according to

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4368-464: The Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Spain and the UK, with partnerships in other countries under negotiation. The service provider is typically responsible for marketing and selling the SES Broadband service, providing home and business installations, billing, and running a subscriber helpdesk. SES Broadband Services provides

4472-496: The FCC decided to consider two options regarding Internet services: first, permit fast and slow broadband lanes, thereby compromising net neutrality; and second, reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service, thereby preserving net neutrality. On 10 November 2014, President Barack Obama recommended that the FCC reclassify broadband Internet service as a telecommunications service in order to preserve net neutrality. On 16 January 2015, Republicans presented legislation, in

4576-460: The FCC issued a call for more K a -band satellite applications, attracting applications from 15 companies. Among those were EchoStar , Lockheed Martin , GE-Americom , Motorola and KaStar Satellite, which later became WildBlue . Among prominent aspirants in the early-stage satellite Internet sector was Teledesic , an ambitious and ultimately failed project funded in part by Microsoft that ended up costing more than $ 9 billion. Teledesic's idea

4680-464: The FCC published the final rule on its new " Net Neutrality " regulations. These rules went into effect on 12 June 2015. Upon becoming FCC chairman in April 2017, Ajit Pai proposed an end to net neutrality, awaiting votes from the commission. On 21 November 2017, Pai announced that a vote will be held by FCC members on 14 December 2017 on whether to repeal the policy. On 11 June 2018, the repeal of

4784-496: The FCC's network neutrality rules took effect. Since December 31, 2021, The Affordable Connectivity Program has given households in the U.S. at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines or households which meet a number of other criteria an up to $ 30 per month discount toward internet service, or up to $ 75 per month on certain tribal lands. Access provider ISPs provide Internet access, employing

4888-425: The IP data for the end user's PC. The return path is handled in a similar fashion, but with a low power 500 mW transmitter on each terminal dish providing the uplink to the satellite, with multiple-frequency time division multiple access techniques employed to handle many remote terminals simultaneously. SES Broadband combines 2 standards for the return path: Satmode for modulation and coding and DVB-RCS for

4992-458: The Internet in a vote expected on 26 February 2015. Adoption of this notion would reclassify Internet service from one of information to one of the telecommunications and, according to Tom Wheeler , chairman of the FCC, ensure net neutrality. The FCC was expected to enforce net neutrality in its vote, according to The New York Times . On 26 February 2015, the FCC ruled in favor of net neutrality by adopting Title II (common carrier) of

5096-466: The Internet, such as e-mail interchange, but full access to the Internet was not readily available to the general public. In 1989, the first Internet service providers, companies offering the public direct access to the Internet for a monthly fee, were established in Australia and the United States. In Brookline, Massachusetts , The World became the first commercial ISP in the US. Its first customer

5200-436: The K a band (19/29 GHz) can use special techniques such as large rain margins , adaptive uplink power control and reduced bit rates during precipitation. Rain margins are the extra communication link requirements needed to account for signal degradations due to moisture and precipitation, and are of acute importance on all systems operating at frequencies over 10 GHz. The amount of time during which service

5304-457: The North and Baltic Seas, and the northern Mediterranean. and provides the same always-on high-speed Internet connection for web browsing, VoIP telephone, email, etc. The SES Broadband for Maritime service uses the same satellite modem, as the land-based solution, but the terminal deployed is a professional 85 cm (33 in) in-motion marine dish with automatic tracking capabilities, housed in

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5408-455: The S/N ratio dropping below its minimum threshold for successful communication. Modern consumer-grade dish antennas tend to be fairly small, which reduces the rain margin or increases the required satellite downlink power and cost. However, it is often more economical to build a more expensive satellite and smaller, less expensive consumer antennas than to increase the consumer antenna size to reduce

5512-416: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was reported to be considering a new rule permitting ISPs to offer content providers a faster track to send content, thus reversing their earlier net neutrality position. A possible solution to net neutrality concerns may be municipal broadband , according to Professor Susan Crawford , a legal and technology expert at Harvard Law School . On 15 May 2014,

5616-502: The UHF band (including the MMDS frequency band) and LMDS . It is hypothesized that the vast divide between broadband connection in rural and urban areas is partially caused by a lack of competition between ISPs in rural areas , where there exists a market typically controlled by just one provider. A lack of competition problematically causes subscription rates to rise disproportionately with

5720-490: The access scheme. The central hub and terminal technology is developed by a Belgian company called Newtec. SES Broadband uses the Astra 3B communications satellite at the 23.5° east orbital position to handle uplinks and downlinks in both directions. A number of transponders are used for the hub-to-terminal downlink in the satellite TV downlink segment of the Ku band (10.70 GHz-12.75 GHz). The terminal-to-hub uplink to

5824-425: The aircraft, resulting in a greatly reduced round-trip signal latency of only 0.25 milliseconds. The planes could potentially run for long periods without refueling. Several such schemes involving various types of aircraft have been proposed in the past. Satellite communications are affected by moisture and various forms of precipitation (such as rain or snow) in the signal path between end users or ground stations and

5928-409: The connection to a customer, and tracking by the ground stations. MEO satellites require higher power transmissions than LEO to achieve the same signal strength at the ground station but their higher altitude also provides less orbital overcrowding, and their slower orbit speed reduces both Doppler shift and the size and complexity of the constellation required. Tracking of the moving satellites

6032-420: The correct horizontal separation and adjustable vertically (for the user's latitude ). A special four-output LNB is supplied, which contains filtering to suppress interference from the iLNB's transmitter. SES Broadband provides an always-on connection and German consumer magazine, SatVision declared the SES Broadband (then ASTRA2Connect) speed "Good" with a score of 83.3%, while PC Magazin found "The speed of

6136-542: The data transfer is what you'd expect from 1 Mbit/s access. Our tests rushed through the ether at about 115 Kbyte/s." What Satellite and Digital TV magazine concluded that the service "provides a reliable speed and quality of connection". Since these tests, the maximum download speed has been increased and now stands at 10 Mbit/s, with a maximum upload speed of 256 kbit/s which puts SES Broadband on par with practical terrestrial broadband connections. Potential drawbacks of satellite broadband systems include

6240-533: The difference in competition levels has potentially negatively affected the innovation and development of infrastructure in specific rural areas remains a question. The exploration and answers developed to the question could provide guidance for possible interventions and solutions meant to remedy the digital divide between rural and urban connectivity. Altnets (portmanteau of "alternative network provider") are localized broadband networks, typically formed as an alternative to monopolistic internet service providers within

6344-538: The dish aligned correctly on the correct satellite, the IPmodem automatically seeks out the initial receive carrier frequency (10.891 GHz) and establishes a satellite connection. To enable an SES Broadband dish to be used for normal satellite TV reception, a "Quad LNB and Multifeed Clamp" upgrade can be fitted to the terminal dish. This comprises a replacement clamp for the iLNB onto which fits an additional LNB clamp for either Astra 19.2°E or Astra 28.2°E , fixed at

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6448-405: The entire system. Working in concert with a broadband gateway, the satellite operates a Star network topology where all network communication passes through the network's hub processor, which is at the centre of the star. With this configuration, the number of ground stations that can be connected to the hub is virtually limitless. Marketed as the centre of the new broadband satellite networks are

6552-622: The existing platform based on geostationary orbit satellites. A proposed alternative to relay satellites is a special-purpose high altitude platform stations aircraft, which would fly along a circular path above a fixed ground location, operating under autonomous computer control at a height of approximately 20,000 meters. For example, the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Vulture project envisaged an ultralight aircraft capable of station-keeping over

6656-400: The expertise of network management personnel are important in ensuring that data follows the most efficient route, and upstream connections work reliably. A tradeoff between cost and efficiency is possible. Tier 1 ISPs are also interconnected with a mesh network topology. Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) are public locations where several networks are connected to each other. Public peering

6760-411: The feedhorn and electronics for reception and transmission in one unit, and is provided with two F connectors for receive and transmit connection to the IPmodem. The reception (download) section is equivalent to a universal LNB used in a European domestic direct broadcast satellite TV system but provides for reception of one signal polarization only (selection of the correct polarization at installation

6864-637: The first four satellites of the O3b constellation were launched into medium Earth orbit (MEO) to provide internet access to the "other three billion" people without stable internet access at that time. Over the next six years, 16 further satellites joined the constellation, now owned and operated by SES . Since 2014, a rising number of companies announced working on internet access using satellite constellations in low Earth orbit . SpaceX , OneWeb and Amazon all planned to launch more than 1000 satellites each. OneWeb alone raised $ 1.7 billion by February 2017 for

6968-404: The form of a U.S. Congress H.R. discussion draft bill , that makes concessions to net neutrality but prohibits the FCC from accomplishing the goal or enacting any further regulation affecting Internet service providers. On 31 January 2015, AP News reported that the FCC will present the notion of applying ("with some caveats") Title II (common carrier) of the Communications Act of 1934 to

7072-413: The gateway antenna can stay pointed at a fixed position. For the customer-provided equipment (i.e. PC and router) to access the broadband satellite network, the customer must have additional physical components installed: At the far end of the outdoor unit is typically a small (2–3-foot, 60 to 90 cm diameter), reflective dish-type radio antenna. The VSAT antenna must also have an unobstructed view of

7176-406: The gateway receives radio wave signals from the satellite on the last leg of the return or upstream payload, carrying the request originating from the end-user's site. The satellite modem at the gateway location demodulates the incoming signal from the outdoor antenna into IP packets and sends the packets to the local network. Access server/gateways manage traffic transported to/from the Internet. Once

7280-474: The ground. The absolute minimum total amount of delay varies, due to the satellite staying in one place in the sky, while ground-based users can be directly below (with a roundtrip latency of 239.6 ms), or far to the side of the planet near the horizon (with a roundtrip latency of 279.0 ms). For an Internet packet, that delay is doubled before a reply is received. That is the theoretical minimum. Factoring in other normal delays from network sources gives

7384-486: The ground. For example: Unlike geostationary satellites, LEO and MEO satellites do not stay in a fixed position in the sky and from a lower altitude they can "see" a smaller area of the Earth , and so continuous widespread access requires a constellation of many satellites (low-Earth orbits needing more satellites than medium-Earth orbits) with complex constellation management to switch data transfer between satellites and keep

7488-399: The initial request has been processed by the gateway's servers, sent to and returned from the Internet, the requested information is sent back as a forward or downstream payload to the end-user via the satellite, which directs the signal to the subscriber terminal. Each Gateway provides the connection to the Internet backbone for the gateway beam(s) it serves. The system of gateways comprising

7592-551: The initiation of secure Internet connections such as SSL which require the exchange of numerous pieces of data between web server and web client. Although these pieces of data are small, the multiple round trips involved in the handshake produce long delays compared to other forms of Internet connectivity, as documented by Stephen T. Cobb in a 2011 report published by the Rural Mobile and Broadband Alliance. This annoyance extends to entering and editing data using some Software as

7696-586: The invention of the Internet and the World Wide Web, geostationary satellites attracted interest as a potential means of providing Internet access. A significant enabler of satellite-delivered Internet has been the opening up of the K a band for satellites. In December 1993, Hughes Aircraft Co. filed with the Federal Communications Commission for a license to launch the first K a -band satellite, Spaceway . In 1995,

7800-633: The lack of security of the download data (which can be received by anyone within the satellite's footprint ) and the delay inherent in the connection – as both upload and download data must follow the route from the ground to the satellite (located some 35,785 km (22,236 mi) above the Earth) and back, there is a minimum total delay or latency (depending on the location of the receive site) of about 0.5 seconds. SES Broadband data transmission features two-way TCP encryption to provide security, and data compression, TCP-acceleration, and HTTP pre-fetching (at

7904-422: The likes of first-person shooters or racing simulators while many MMOGs can operate well over satellite Internet ), but IPTV is typically a simplex operation (one-way transmission) and latency is not a critical factor for video transmission. The effects of this delay may be mitigated using data compression, TCP-acceleration, and HTTP pre-fetching. A geostationary orbit (or geostationary Earth orbit/GEO)

8008-479: The location or its temporary nature prohibits a terrestrial connection, although the equipment requires mains power and cannot be used while actually in motion. As well as Internet access, SES Broadband is used for dual play (broadband internet and telephony ) and triple play (broadband Internet, telephony and TV) services. An upgrade was introduced in 2008 to enable an SES Broadband dish to be used for simultaneous reception of normal satellite TV from satellites at

8112-448: The network in which the satellite functions as a bridge in space, connecting two communication points on the ground. The term "bent-pipe" is used to describe the shape of the data path between sending and receiving antennas, with the satellite positioned at the point of the bend. Simply put, the satellite's role in this network arrangement is to relay signals from the end user's terminal to the ISP's gateways, and back again without processing

8216-587: The next generation of O3b satellites and service, named O3b mPOWER . The constellation of 11 MEO satellites will deliver 10 terabits of capacity globally through 30,000 spot beams for broadband internet services. The first two O3b mPOWER satellites launched in December 2022, with nine more scheduled for deployment in 2023-2024 and the initial service start expected in Q3 2023. As of 2017, airlines such as Delta and American have been introducing satellite internet as

8320-508: The package chosen with one-off allowance extensions available for additional payment: Connection to the SES Broadband service is by way of a Sat3Play satellite terminal developed by Newtec in conjunction with the European Space Agency (ESA) . The terminal comprises an external satellite dish fitted with a two-way interactive LNB ("iLNB") connected by coaxial cable to the indoor satellite "IP modem" that, in turn, connects to

8424-451: The past decade, ground equipment has similarly evolved, benefiting from higher levels of integration and increasing processing power, expanding both capacity and performance boundaries. The Gateway —or Gateway Earth Station (its full name)—is also referred to as a ground station, teleport or hub. The term is sometimes used to describe just the antenna dish portion, or it can refer to the complete system with all associated components. In short,

8528-418: The payload transponders is a repeater subsystem (RF (radio frequency) equipment) used to change frequencies, filter, separate, amplify and group signals before routing them to their destination address on Earth. The satellite's high-gain receiving antenna passes the transmitted data to the transponder which filters, translates and amplifies them, then redirects them to the transmitting antenna on board. The signal

8632-536: The physics involved in satellite communications account for approximately 550 milliseconds of latency round-trip time. The longer latency is the primary difference between a standard terrestrial-based network and a geostationary satellite-based network. The round-trip latency of a geostationary satellite communications network can be more than 12 times that of a terrestrial based network. Satellite latency can be detrimental to especially time-sensitive applications such as on-line gaming (although it only seriously affects

8736-457: The project, and SpaceX raised over one billion in the first half of 2019 for their service called Starlink . They expected more than $ 30 billion in revenue by 2025 from its satellite constellation. Starlink, as of February 2024, has 5,402 operational satellites in orbit. Many planned constellations employ laser communication for inter-satellite links to effectively create a space-based internet backbone . In September 2017, SES announced

8840-415: The quality of service in rural areas, causing broadband connection to be unaffordable for some, even when the infrastructure supports service in a given area. In contrast, consumers in urban areas typically benefit from lower rates and higher quality of broadband services, not only due to more advanced infrastructure but also the healthy economic competition caused by having several ISPs in a given area. How

8944-464: The reach of existing terrestrial broadband services. Outside the major European urban centres, there are millions of households currently without broadband access through landlines. and by 2010, up to 6 million, or 3.5%, of the 170 million homes in Western Europe will still be without terrestrial broadband access. SES Broadband can also be used for transportable broadband Internet access, where

9048-764: The relevant department of companies, universities, organizations, groups, and individuals that manage their mail servers themselves. The task is typically accomplished by implementing Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and possibly providing access to messages through Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), the Post Office Protocol , Webmail , or a proprietary protocol. Internet hosting services provide email, web-hosting, or online storage services. Other services include virtual server , cloud services, or physical server operation. Just as their customers pay them for Internet access, ISPs themselves pay upstream ISPs for Internet access. An upstream ISP such as

9152-465: The satellite antennas that communicate with them do not have to move to track them, but can point permanently at the position in the sky where the satellites stay. Due to the constant 0° latitude and circularity of geostationary orbits, satellites in GEO differ in location by longitude only. Compared to ground-based communication, all geostationary satellite communications experience higher latency due to

9256-413: The satellite being utilized. This interference with the signal is known as rain fade . The effects are less pronounced on the lower frequency 'L' and 'C' bands but can become quite severe on the higher frequency 'Ku' and 'Ka' band. For satellite Internet services in tropical areas with heavy rain, use of the C band (4/6 GHz) with a circular polarisation satellite is popular. Satellite communications on

9360-498: The satellite cost. Internet service provider Early research and development: Merging the networks and creating the Internet: Commercialization, privatization, broader access leads to the modern Internet: Examples of Internet services: An Internet service provider ( ISP ) is an organization that provides myriad services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in

9464-420: The satellite ground system provides all network services for satellite and corresponding terrestrial connectivity. Each gateway provides a multiservice access network for subscriber terminal connections to the Internet. As the continental United States is north of the equator, all gateway and subscriber dish antenna must have an unobstructed view of the southern sky. Because of the satellite's geostationary orbit,

9568-647: The satellite uses the uplink segment of the Ku band (14.00 GHz-14.50 GHz) and extended Ku band (13.75 GHz-14.25 GHz) SES Broadband services are sold to residential users by a number of ISPs in partnership with SES. Such partnerships operate either exclusively or in competition within different regions and countries of Europe. Germany was the first country to receive access to SES Broadband (then ASTRA2Connect) services. SES currently has partnerships with ISPs to provide SES Broadband services in Austria, Belgium,

9672-496: The sending device (computer, router, etc.) it receives an input bitstream and converts or modulates it into radio waves, reversing that order for incoming transmissions, which is called demodulation . It provides two types of connectivity: Consumer grade satellite modems typically employ either the DOCSIS or WiMAX telecommunication standard to communicate with the assigned gateway. Latency (commonly referred to as "ping time")

9776-441: The server and subscriber ends) to alleviate the effects of satellite latency. Digital Fernsehen magazine's tests of SES Broadband (then ASTRA2Connect) found that "two-way connection via satellite is unsuitable for lovers of on-line games. The ping times measured are too long for this application, with values of 578 ms-589 ms". However, PC Magazin' s tests found: "The echo (Ping) times were around 650 ms. For large downloads, that

9880-524: The signal at the satellite. The satellite receives, amplifies, and redirects a carrier on a specific radio frequency through a signal path called a transponder. Some satellite constellations in LEO such as Starlink and the proposed Telesat constellation will employ laser communication equipment for high-throughput optical inter-satellite links. The interconnected satellites allow for direct routing of user data from satellite to satellite and effectively create

9984-424: The signal having to travel 35,786 km (22,236 mi) to a satellite in geostationary orbit and back to Earth again. Even at the speed of light (about 300,000 km/s or 186,000 miles per second), this delay can appear significant. If all other signaling delays could be eliminated, it still takes a radio signal about 250 milliseconds (ms), or about a quarter of a second, to travel to the satellite and back to

10088-418: The sky to allow for proper line-of-sight (L-O-S) to the satellite. There are four physical characteristic settings used to ensure that the antenna is configured correctly at the satellite, which are: azimuth , elevation, polarization , and skew . The combination of these settings gives the outdoor unit a L-O-S to the chosen satellite and makes data transmission possible. These parameters are generally set at

10192-509: The subscriber-side terminal, and gateway spot beams, which transmit to/from a service provider ground station. Note that moving off the tight footprint of a spotbeam can degrade performance significantly. Also, spotbeams can make the use of other significant new technologies impossible, including 'Carrier in Carrier ' modulation. In conjunction with the satellite's spot-beam technology, a bent-pipe architecture has traditionally been employed in

10296-493: The time the equipment is installed, along with a beam assignment (K a -band only); these steps must all be taken prior to the actual activation of service. Transmit and receive components are typically mounted at the focal point of the antenna which receives/sends data from/to the satellite. The main parts are: The satellite modem serves as an interface between the outdoor unit and customer-provided equipment (i.e. PC, router) and controls satellite transmission and reception. From

10400-627: The user is connected; like commercial television , in a sense they are selling the user's attention to the advertiser. Other free ISPs, sometimes called freenets , are run on a nonprofit basis, usually with volunteer staff. A wireless Internet service provider (WISP) is an Internet service provider with a network based on wireless networking. Technology may include commonplace Wi-Fi wireless mesh networking, or proprietary equipment designed to operate over open 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 4.9, 5.2, 5.4, 5.7, and 5.8 GHz bands or licensed frequencies such as 2.5 GHz (EBS/BRS), 3.65 GHz (NN) and in

10504-531: The user's PC or LAN . Assembly of the dish and installation is straightforward and requires only a few basic tools and a simple signal strength meter. The installation is sometimes referred to as Do-It-Yourself (DiY) installation. Detailed instructions for installation are supplied and this can be achieved by any competent end user, without professional help. The satellite dish is of an offset design with an 80 cm (31 in) diameter solid steel reflector and fitted with an altazimuth mount . The iLNB combines

10608-639: Was launched in September 2003. In 2004, with the launch of Anik F2 , the first high-throughput satellite , a class of next-generation satellites providing improved capacity and bandwidth became operational. More recently, high throughput satellites such as ViaSat's ViaSat-1 satellite in 2011 and HughesNet's Jupiter in 2012 have achieved further improvements, elevating downstream data rates from 1 to 3 Mbit/s up to 12 to 15 Mbit/s and beyond. Internet access services tied to these satellites are targeted largely to rural residents as an alternative to Internet service via dial-up, ADSL or classic FSSes . In 2013,

10712-586: Was served in November 1989. These companies generally offered dial-up connections, using the public telephone network to provide last-mile connections to their customers. The barriers to entry for dial-up ISPs were low and many providers emerged. However, cable television companies and the telephone carriers already had wired connections to their customers and could offer Internet connections at much higher speeds than dial-up using broadband technology such as cable modems and digital subscriber line (DSL). As

10816-510: Was to create a satellite Internet constellation of hundreds of low-orbiting satellites in the K a -band frequency, providing inexpensive Internet access with download speeds of up to 720 Mbit/s. However, the project was abandoned in 2003. Teledesic's failure, coupled with the bankruptcy filings of the satellite communications providers Iridium Communications Inc. and Globalstar , dampened marketplace enthusiasm for satellite Internet development. The first Internet-ready satellite for consumers

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