There are a few primary areas which have the biggest impact on a teleport operator’s bottom line and/or the ability to improve service delivery. These broad areas include: space segment, network management systems, electricity consumption and network performance, and new technologies are making positive impacts and helping teleports improve both profits and service levels in these areas. 

Dynamic Duo: DVB-S2, MPEG-4

DVB-S2 and MPEG 4 are enhanced versions of earlier technical standards, and while the new version have merits of their own, teleport operators are discovering that the transmission and video coding standard are extremely synergistic and can dramatically lower space segment utilization when used together. Broadcasters have reported saving up to 40 percent on the amount of space segment. “The deployment of MPEG-4 systems has been held back the last several years due to the high capital cost of equipment,” says Lou Zacharilla, director of development World Teleport Association (WTA). “As the cost of hardware has become to go down, we are seeing more MPEG-4 systems being deployed. An MPEG-4 video stream broadcast over a DVB-S2 carrier is extremely efficient and teleport operators are seeing dramatic improvements in space segment utilization.”

Gary Hatch, President of ATCi, which operates three teleports around the globe, concurs. “Utilizing both MPEG- 4 and DVB-S2 offers tremendous savings, especially with HD video feeds. We can take an off-air channel or one off of a fiber and encode them as MPEG-4 and then transmit them over a DVB-S2 carrier. In the past we could get 45 [megabits per second] over the link but with DVB-S2, using [three-quarter] rate coding, we are now approaching 80 [megabits per second]. We may have to use a larger antenna, but the payback is very quick.” Hatch notes that the MPEG-4 video feed must be transcoded back to MPEG- 2 at the cable head-end. “There are roughly 74 million set-top boxes in the United States and 99 percent of them are still MPEG-2. Therefore, we need to convert the MPEG- 4 video feed so it is compatible with the cable companies’ installed base of set-top boxes. There is some extra hardware involved at the headend, but the savings on space segment makes it all worthwhile.”

Teleport operators have typically grown their businesses on a project-by-project basis. Ideally, equipment purchased for one project could be leveraged in the future to bring on new customers. But businesses do not always move in a straight line, and the subsystems purchased for different projects were not always congruent. This began to change with the widespread adoption of IP — or at least shift in the right direction. Flexible IP-based solutions enable satellite operators to maximize the number of channels per transponder and reduce both capital expenditures and operating expenses. Multi-channel encoders with IP multiplexing make it possible to provision a greater range of HD and SD broadcast channels in multiple delivery formats. Instead of buying multiple encoders, a teleport now can purchase a single device that will handle multiple formats. IP multiplexing allows video channels to be distributed from facility to facility via a standard Cisco infrastructure. In addition, IP multiplexing eliminates the tangle of different types of video cables and patch panels, replacing them with Ethernet connections.

Recently, Broadcast Equipment India Pvt. Ltd (BEI) of India launched the first commercial HD and SD teleport facility in the country. Harmonic’s Ellipse 1000 contribution encoder was chosen based on its ability to simultaneously transmit MPEG-2 SD and MPEG-4 AVC SD/HD video to multiple transponders. Harmonic also offers a range of distribution encoders and a compact, multi-function stream processing platform that supports multiplexing for up to eight satellite transports in 1-RU. “With the expansion of HD television services in India, it is vital that we are prepared to handle the requirements of our broadcast customers to cost-effectively deliver high-quality HD video services to their subscribers,” said a BEI spokesman. “The versatility, feature set and output quality of the Ellipse 1000 contribution encoder are indicative of Harmonic’s video expertise.”

Network Management Tools

The term network management” is a large umbrella covering just about everything related to teleport monitor and control systems as well as management systems for local area and wide area networks. With the widespread adoption of IP, teleport operators are increasingly being asked to manage their client’s networks, not just uplink satellite carriers for the transmission of voice, data and video traffic. As such, the integration and interoperability of these diverse systems are becoming increasingly important. Further, the automation of network management tools is reducing the amount of time needed to diagnose and fix problems, and even identify problems which are likely to occur in the future.

“The automation that newer network management systems provide is extremely powerful,” Hatch says. “For instance, we use Crystal Technologies to manage our teleport operations, and we can automatically monitor thousands of carriers for problems. In the past, problem resolution was all reactive and required a skilled technician or satellite engineer. New [monitoring and control] systems reduce personnel training and labor expenses,” he says.

“Low-cost carrier monitoring systems allow for fast trouble shooting during link failures,” says Keith Hall, president and COO of Globecomm. “In addition, Ethernet-interfaced subsystems with GUIs, such as the Avcom L-band spectrum analyzer, make them much easier to interconnect with other network management tools. When it comes to managing the routers and switches in our network, there are a number of different products which provide audible, visual and electronic notification of alarms.”

Taking network management to the next level, the smart appliances from Uplogix not only detect network problems, they can take action directly to solve 20 percent to 40 percent of all network problems, increasing network uptime and allowing teleport operators to get more work done with fewer personnel in their network operations center, the company says. “Uplogix has written advanced drivers for many different brands of satellite modems, Seatel stabilized antennas and Cisco routers and switches,” said Hank Zbierski, director general of IsoTropic Networks, a teleport operator in Lake Geneva, Wis. “That allows the Uplogix gear to interface with different types of network gear directly at the command line interface. For instance, if a Cisco router goes into ROMMon (ROM monitor) state and the operating system can’t boot, the Uplogix appliance can detect the problem and will automate the recovery process without human intervention, and we are all about minimal human intervention. We can also remotely access the console port on any type of hardware through an out-of-band connection should the Uplogix gear not be able to solve the problem on its own. This is like having our best technician or ‘Virtual Valet; plugged into the hardware with a laptop at all times. The automated problem resolution solves many low level network problems, allowing our engineers to get more work done.”

Electricity Usage

The cost of electricity has a significant impact on the bottom line of any teleport. Pricing plans for electricity vary greatly around the globe, from a flat rate per unit of consumption (typically kilowatt/hours in the United States) to variable pricing per unit of consumption based on demand throughout the day — the higher the demand, the higher the price. Regardless of pricing format, energy prices have risen over the last decade bringing the use of this resource under increasing scrutiny. In late 2009, the WTA announced the Green Teleport Campaign to educate members on their consumption of electrical power and ways to decrease usage. Industry studies reveal that most teleports spend $300,000 to $1 million per year on electricity, and the enthusiastic endorsement of going green for the sake of being green differs around the world, however, no one can argue that a cut of up to 40 percent in the electric bill is a bad thing.

As part of the initiative, WTA released a white paper, “The Green Teleport: The Case for Sustainability,” which outlines keys steps that a teleport can take to lower its electricity consumption. Among the measures are: implementing a comprehensive energy audit to understand energy consumption and uncover quick and easy energy conservation methods; increase the staff’s energy knowledge, as the decisions they make directly affect energy consumption; make capital investments in major systems designed to operate more efficiently and save money; and make the move to energy independence withe efforts to develop geothermal, solar, and wind systems.

Hall notes the importance of engineering equipment rooms. “To really get the biggest payback in energy efficiency you must plan out the equipment rooms. Proper planning helps maximize air flow, thereby insuring efficient cooling.” When designing air conditioning systems for telecommunications and information technology rooms that require cooling in the winter, Hall points out the effectiveness of Leibert’s Free cooling coils of lowering utility bills. The Leibert Free system pumps a glycol mixture to transfer heat from the computer room to a heat exchanger located outside. The glycol loop is much more efficient at transferring heat than with air and the pump used circulate the cooling fluid requires far less energy to run than an air conditioning compressor.

Hall and Hatch both note the powers savings that occur when solid state power amplifiers (SSPA) are used in lieu of RF amplifiers, which use klystron tubes. “We strive to use HPAs and other electronic devices which are electrically efficient and require less maintenance. Specifically, for our broadcast services, we mostly use indoor TWT HPAs instead of combined klystron HPAs,” says Hall. “As a result, we use about 50 percent less electricity from transmissions. This includes lower air conditioning costs because we generate much less indoor heat than with tube amplifiers. In other applications, we work to use outdoor (antenna mounted) HPAs, which provide long term savings as they don’t need to air conditioned,” he says.

“Klystron amplifiers draw lots of power,” says Hatch. “Going to sophisticated SSPA is capital intensive, but there is a definite payback. It is somewhat similar to the decision airlines make when it to equipping their airplanes with engines: Do you rebuild the old engines, which cost less, or buy new engines and use less fuel and cut long term maintenance costs?”

Conclusion

Most teleports do not have research and development labs in which to experiment with and evaluate new technologies. Therefore, their engineering staffs must do the proper due diligence when investigating promising new technologies. Although it involves a degree of risk, the adoption of new technologies allows teleport operators to do their jobs in a faster, more efficient, and more cost-effective manner. Look for technological enhancements to continue to drive improvements in service delivery and increased profits to teleport operators’ bottom lines.

Greg Berlocher has been active in the satellite industry for twenty five years and is the President of  Transcendent Global Networks LLC.