There obviously had to come a time when the interests of the wireless network engineer in me and my enthusiasm for flying in the simulator cross paths. Even small general aviation aircraft have lots of radios on board these days and if you go up the price range a bit, there are even built-in satellite … Continue reading Reality Bites – Flight Simulation – Part 9 – Satellite Communication in Planes
In the previous episodes, I’ve gone into some of the details of the Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) extensions specified in 3GPP Rel. 17 36.300 and 38.300. One main aspect I haven’t addressed so far is mobility, so let’s have a look at that today! Actually, mobility in NTN is even more fun than in terrestrial networks … Continue reading NTN – Part 6 – Satellite Mobility
This part is the seamless continuation of part 3 on the 3GPP TS 36.300 and TS 38.300 extension for Non-Terrestrial Networks, i.e. satellite communication. So let’s jump back straight in. Before we talk more about specific architecture options, here are two more terms used in the specification that are important to understand: As discussed in … Continue reading NTN – Part 4 – Satellite and Mobile Operator Mix and Match
In part 1 of this series, I’ve taken a high level look at how the LTE and 5G air interface specifications have been extended in 3GPP Release 17 to accommodate for weaker signals, longer delays and patchy coverage typically experienced over satellite. In part 2, I’ve chased the question why the LTE NB-IoT and CAT-M … Continue reading NTN – Part 3 – 3GPP Rel. 17 – System Architecture for Satellite Services
In the previous post on the topic, I’ve been looking at how 3GPP has studied and then extended the LTE and 5G NR air interface so it can be used over a satellite link. For transmitting data to and from smartphones with omnidirectional antennas over satellites, 3GPP has extended the LTE Narrowband Internet of Things … Continue reading NTN Part 2 – NB-IoT over Satellite
In the previous parts on this topic I have mentioned a few times how amazed I am that despite a transmit power of only 1.5 watts, the small Garmin InReach Mini 2 can send text messages to Iridium satellites that are thousands of kilometers away. This becomes even more impressive when one sees where the … Continue reading When All Else Fails – Part 7 – Satellite Distribution
A couple of months ago, Eutelsat launched a next generation satellite (KA-SAT) for Internet access in Europe and it seems it has ended up in the right orbit and it will be taken into service shortly. Especially one number is quite interesting: The satellite is said to have a capacity of 70 GBit/s, that's 70.000 … Continue reading 70 GBit/s From The Satellite
It's great when two high speed technologies come together: High speed trains running at over 300 km/h and high speed Internet access. Thalys, whose trains travel between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne has equipped all of their trains with satellite, Wi-Fi, UMTS and GPRS based high speed Internet access, accessible to passengers via standard Wi-Fi. … Continue reading Satellite Internet on Thalys High Speed Trains – A Report
Every now and then I get an eMail from someone asking me for advice on how to best hook up to the Internet from that little cottage they have bought in a remote place in Italy. Not quite sure why it’s always Italy, seems to be a nice place for a cottage. If 3G is … Continue reading Broadband Internet via 2-way Astra Satellite
As I’ve already noticed last year, there is quite a bit of packet loss over Starlink connections that has a significant impact on TCP performance. Also, I was wondering if and how much packet loss occurs in cellular networks during a handover. Recently, I picked up this topic again and was looking for a way … Continue reading Analyzing Packet Loss in Starlink