[Satellite News 05-14-09] Executives and engineers from a variety of satellite and telecommunications companies established new talking points and dialog over the challenges and benefits of delivering IP over hybrid terrestrial networks at the first-ever IP Satellite Summit in Washington D.C.
    Panelists said their goal at the event was to counter rumors of satellite fear over IP with the industry’s rooted history and development strategies for hybrid networks. Topics at the May 13 event included: the scalability of megabit and megahertz business models; the scope of the existing MSS IP customer base; the differences between traditional bent-pipe infrastructure and network routing in space; and IP congestion issues for first responders.
    The opening general panel session,  "IP via Satellite: What Every Telecom Company Should Know," moderated by NSR President Christopher Baugh, aimed to demystify the satellite industry’s role in the forecasted multi-sector IP communications paradigm shift.
    Mike Cook, senior vice president of Hughes Network Systems, said that the satellite industry is anything but new to the concepts of next-generation IP technology. "The satellite industry has been discussing IP and developing solutions since the 1990s. We’ve been answering the question, ‘What about fibre?’ for 15 years. Today, every product that Hughes Network Systems sells involves an IP platform," said Cook.
    Vice President of Systems Architecture for iDirect, Joe Boone, said that he has been working in the trenches on satellite IP-delivery solutions for some time. "If there is one talking point I would like to leave with the audience, it’s that for us, satellite IP technology is mature. There should be no doubt about it. In the early days, the main challenge was compatibility between IP and satellite. At this point, it is off the shelf, with a rich feature set and compatible with the widely used DVB-S2 standard. Our constant goal now is improving bandwidth efficiency."
   Cisco IRIS COO, Rick Sanford, said that when it comes to IP, satellite is not a last-resort choice to terrestrial infrastructure. "Satellite’s role in IP delivery is not just about reaching underserved markets – it’s about choice. IP is delivered over a diversified network and the spacecraft happens to be a part of that network," said Sanford.
   Baugh told panelists that, in preparation for the summit, NSR asked telecoms to submit questions and concerns directed at the participating satellite companies. The most pressing concern for telecoms, according to Baugh, was that they do not trust the scalability of the satellite companies.
   Mohammad Marashi, vice president of product strategy and development for Intelsat said that to answer these concerns, telecoms need to be specific about what kind of scalability issues they are talking about and that the issue may be a result of simple miscommunication. "We need to work closer with telcos to overcome common issues and speak to them in terrestrial terms. In certain areas, satellite does have issues with scale. But, it has solved a lot of them. For example, look at the way we’ve scaled transponders. In the analog broadcast era, we had one channel per transponder. Now, with our transition to digital, we host 12 to 15 channels per transponder," he said.
   However, Marashi said he believes that there scalability issues with complications involving some satellite companies transitioning from a per-megahertz to a per-megabit capacity model. "It is a complicated transition and calls for contract models to be altered on many levels. You have to give customers the opportunity not to buy a static service. Does it make sense to lump a variety of different customers from business to consumer markets into one type of capacity and network infrastructure? I don’t think so, if the current model works for them."
    David Myers, executive vice president and general manager of CapRock Government Solutions, disagreed with Marashi. "It is not difficult at all to move from megahertz to a megabit structure. It’s more a matter of motivation. In order for us to be successful with these hybrid network solutions, we have to match terrestrial costs per-bit," said Myers.
    Sanford said that regardless of loyalty to capacity models, the satellite industry has to work together to provide the same scale, cost and speed of its terrestrial partners. The challenge is, how do we more of this moving forward? How do we satisfy customers like enterprise outfits who buy capacity for videoconferencing – one of the main drivers of IP?"
    The debate over satellite’s scalability also touched on the issue of whether bent-pipe infrastructure or network routing in space was better suited to provide scale, which divided the panelists.
    Cook said that Hughes has eliminated the need for numerous hubs and eight-meter dishes with its network routing solution. "For enterprise customers, we can direct data from branch to branch or re-route directly to a back-up center and for small business networks, we can do all of that cost-efficiently. Now, if i’m a consumer who is just browsing the internet, I wouldn’t see much difference between the two. But, the operator would have flexibility on where to divert the signal, resulting in better effiency and better service," said Cook. "It depends on what applications you’re using. There’s no single ideal solution for everything."
    Boone disagreed with Cooke and said that the traditional bent pipe system is proven. "Bent pipe works and will be the mainstream technology for years to come. If you look at the next generation IP satellites like Yahsat, you’ll notice they still use bent pipe. It’s an infrastructure capable of delivering massive amounts of IP data."
  
Satellite News will present more coverage of the IP Satellite Summit throughout the week. Stay posted for exclusive content and video on www.satellitetoday.com