Designing for the Future – Next-
generation satellite technologies
to enable African growth
Abraham Awonuga
Regional Customer Solutions
Engineering Director, Intelsat
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Connecting Africa by Satellite
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Connecting Africa by Satellite
• Satellite Provides Affordable and Flexible
Critical Network Infrastructure
– Limited capex requirements
– Investment in access equipment only
• Ubiquitous Broadband Connectivity
– 100% markets/populations covered today
• Highly Reliable Networks
– +99% network availability rates
– “No cable cuts”
• Flexibility Architecture
– Supports “thin route” consumer
connectivity to “thick route” commercial
applications.
• Enables eGov Initiatives
– eSchools, eHealth, eGov/ICT, cloud
services
– delivered to markets of all sizes today
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Global IP Traffic – EB per Month
2
• Global IP traffic is expected to more than double between now and 2015
• Global mobile data traffic will grow three times faster than fixed IP traffic
Source: Cisco
Broadband Penetration & Speeds Increasing…
Leading to an Explosion in IP Traffic
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The Role of Fixed Satellite Services for
Connectivity Growth (2000-2012)
• Satellite options of today:
– Satellite was the first type
of access connectivity used
to connect Nigeria @ its
GSM launch in 2001
– Allow for rapid deployment
– Provide last-mile
connectivity required to
reach the most remote
locations
– Foster population welfare
and improved quality of life
– Provide resiliencies needed
to meet SLAs at edges of
hybrid networks
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Traditional Satellite Coverage
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Intelsat EpicNG Spot Beams
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The Design: Technical Considerations for
Coverage
• The size of beams formed by a
standard satellite antenna size
depends on frequency
and
• The number of beams is
constrained by satellite
resources (power, mass, space)
• The size of the targeted
coverage is a major driver of
frequency selection
200 miles 600 miles 1000 miles
Ka-band
Ku-band
C-band
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The Design of Beams
• The size of beams
formed by a standard
satellite antenna size
depends on frequency
and
• The number of beams is
constrained by satellite
resources (power, mass,
space)
• The size of the targeted
coverage is a major
driver of frequency
selection
Beams shown are
for illustration only
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Increasing Throughput on Smaller Antennas
Opens Addressable Markets
1.0m
550Mpbs+
0.75m
400Mpbs+
0.46m
180Mpbs+
1.2m
600Mpbs+
1.2m
600Mpbs+
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• Current FSS design can
continue to be
leveraged by the large
existing installed base
and provide primary
solutions in sparsely
populated areas
Existing
2016 and Beyond: The Right Physics and
Right Economics for the Right Solution
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Intelsat EpicNG:
• Can be leveraged in more
highly-populated areas
that demand more
bandwidth
• Provide a very low-cost
solution that can push a
mobile network’s edge
further into rural areas
• Provides the bandwidth
needed to backup high-
speed core/backbone
links.
Existing EpicNG
2016 and Beyond: The Right Physics and
Right Economics for the Right Solution
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Existing EpicNG
• Economical backup to
fiber/microwave links
towards the edge of a
network
• Provides increased
resiliency via a
redundancy option in
case of link failure
The Intelsat EpicNG platform complements existing FSS designs - a layered network approach matches proper design and economics to best meet a given set of requirements
2016 and Beyond: The Right Physics and
Right Economics for the Right Solution
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Right Spectrum for the Right Application
• The frequency selection is
driven by many considerations:
– Coverage and beam size
– Atmospheric conditions in the
region that is being served
– Availability of a robust
ecosystem of ground
technologies
C
Ku
Ka
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The Right Result and Benefits
• Double or more increased in throughput capacity
• Ease to provide access to e-gov services in schools, council
offices e.t.c.
• Lower Opex costs with higher throughput
• Potentially leads to increase GDP for the country
• Lower Capex for remote terminals allows for greater reach
into rural and difficult to reach locations
• Better flexibility using C or Ku or Ka
• Better reliability and durability
Intelsat EpicNG will complement Intelsat’s existing fleet, providing a hybrid layered network solution. Attractive economics are achieved through proper
design to best meet a given set of requirements.
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High Performance
High Capacity
High Throughput
Flexible
All-region Coverage
Open Platform
Backward Compatible
Multi-band
Complementary Overlay
Lower Cost of Ownership
High Performance Satellite Platform
High Efficiency
Resilient and Secure
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Media drives
Broadband
Security
Applications for a Connected Future
Hyper Connected World
2021
Intelligent
Networks
1:1 Customer Experience
Money/Health/Education
Connected World
2012
Mobility
Broadband
Government
Media
Scale and Flexibility
Cost-effective
2016
Connectivity everywhere
Device Aware World
IP-based
Specialized Networks
Interoperability
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Satellite
• Performance, Efficiency
and Throughput
• Flexibility
• Coverage and Power
Sustainable
applications
• Enabling customers’
growth and market reach
• Unlocking new
applications in new
markets
Economics
• Lower Total Cost of
Ownership
• Highly Efficient Bits/MHz
• Sweating Current Assets
• Right Band and Capacity
Design
• Open Architecture
• Backwards Compatible
• Not “Pre-designed”
• Vender / Provider
In Conclusion…