HTS - High Throughput Satellite [Adoption in Mobility Startegy]

Today world is lying on mobile and Internet ecosystems together. The proliferation of web-based mobile applications necessitated mobile broadband access to the Internet, which rapidly became widely and sufficiently available to users of mobile devices, as long as they stayed within the service range of their appropriate terrestrial networks. 

Lets think on the situation from consumer stand point when mobile users got on planes, ships and land-mobiles, the bandwidth frequency, communication and Internet experience was quite different. How consumer and enterprise industry approach and dealt with the situation? HTS (High Throughput Satellite) is one of the approaching solution, which could be considered to become a game changer for Internet users in the aeronautical, maritime, and land-mobile market segments. HTS are primarily deployed to provide broadband Internet access service (point-to-point) to regions un-served or under served by terrestrial technologies where they can deliver services comparable to terrestrial services in terms of pricing and bandwidth. Let's understand what's HTS first? As per Wikipedia, HTS is a classification for communications satellites that provide at least twice, though usually by a factor of 20 or more, the total throughput of a classic FSS satellite for the same amount of allocated orbital spectrum thus significantly reducing cost-per-bit. 

 

The advent of high-throughput satellites (HTS) enables network service providers to offer a new generation of communications solutions. HTS systems combine the exceptional spectrum efficiency and performance of spot-beam antennas with ultra-wideband transponders to enable unprecedented levels of bandwidth and throughput. Each spot beam reuses frequencies in multiple carriers so that a single HTS spacecraft can provide five to ten times the capacity of traditional satellites. For the customer, this provides the potential to dramatically increase data rates, upwards of 100Mbps to a single site and improve application performance compared to traditional satellite based communications.

While many current HTS platforms were designed to serve the consumer broadband market, some are also offering services to government and enterprise markets, as well as to terrestrial cellular network operators who face growing demand for broadband backhaul to rural cell sites. For cellular backhaul, the reduced cost per bit of many HTS platforms creates a significantly more favorable economic model for wireless operators to use satellite for cellular voice and data backhaul. Some HTS platforms are designed primarily for the enterprise, telecom or maritime sectors. HTS can furthermore support point-to-multipoint applications and even broadcast services such as DTH distribution to relatively small geographic areas served by a single spot beam. However, in simple terms, HTS is making broadband access better, cheaper and faster.

Here we look at five main important components of HTS design strategy are:

1. Throughput - total transmitted per seconds
2. Efficiency - actually interdependent of throughput requirements
3. Coverage - the region being served in spacecraft and geographically
4. Architecture - network architecture {Star, Mesh, Loopback…}
5. Spectrum/Efficiency - frequency in consideration into the available bandwidth network and characteristics of the spectrum 

In business terms, HTS will significantly reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) compared to yesteryear’s satellite broadband solutions in the mobile platforms space. More importantly, HTS broadband access is finally becoming competitive with its terrestrial counterparts in terms of cost and performance. But the good news is that HTS does not have to compete with terrestrial solutions in the air, sea and land mobile segments, it just needs to become as widely available as its terrestrial cousins and support comparable broadband connectivity in terms of throughput and cost. 

Takeaway from experts based on experimental outcome result and existing case-study report:

·     Next generation High Throughput Satellites include both Ku and Ka [Refer - below comparison image table].

·         There are many different variations of technologies using the Ka-band frequencies.

·         Ka is an appropriate technology for mass markets and non-industrial markets.

·      Side-by-side technical and cost comparison of Ka and Ku HTS solutions shows significant technical and cost challenges with most Ka solutions for customers with high reliability and availability needs.

·      HTS Ku platforms offer the best overall performance and value for operations for mission critical, maximum uptime networks. 

Important links to explore the purpose and needs of HTS are in detail, such as:

1. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hts-game-changer-bandwidth-run-mobile-platforms-jack-nargundkar
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-throughput_satellite
3. http://www.thedigitalship.com/conferences/presentations/2014rotterdam/10_Claude_Rousseau-Research_Director-NSR-France.pdf
4. http://www.harriscaprock.com/downloads/HarrisCapRock_WhitePaper-Ka-Ku_Analysis.pdf
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrN4dtcpO8k  

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