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The First Detailed Look at How Elon Musk's Space Internet Could Work (newscientist.com)
SpaceX has been granted permission by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to set up a vast network of thousands of low Earth orbit communication satellites. But the company has been tight-lipped about the project, known as Starlink. Mark Handley, University College London built a simulator based on public details from the FCC filings to understand the latency properties of the network. New Scientist reports: Although Musk has said he wants more than half of all internet traffic to go through Starlink -- Handley's simulation suggests that the project will be most appealing to high-frequency traders at big banks, who might be willing to fork out large sums for dedicated, faster connections. To create the simulation, Handley took what information he could from SpaceX's public FCC filings and combined this with his knowledge of computer networks. Initially, Starlink will consist of 4425 satellites orbiting between 1100 and 1300 kilometres up, a greater number of active satellites than are currently in orbit. There is only one way to arrange this many in a configuration that minimises collisions, says Handley. So he is confident that his simulation reflects what SpaceX is going for.
When sending an internet message via Starlink, a ground station will begin by using radio waves to talk to a satellite above it. Once in space, the message will be fired from satellite to satellite using lasers until it is above its destination. From there, it will be beamed down to the right ground station using radio waves again. Between distant places, this will allow messages to be sent about twice as fast as through the optical fibres on Earth that currently connect the internet, despite having to travel to space and back. This is because the speed of the signal in glass is slower than it is through space.
When sending an internet message via Starlink, a ground station will begin by using radio waves to talk to a satellite above it. Once in space, the message will be fired from satellite to satellite using lasers until it is above its destination. From there, it will be beamed down to the right ground station using radio waves again. Between distant places, this will allow messages to be sent about twice as fast as through the optical fibres on Earth that currently connect the internet, despite having to travel to space and back. This is because the speed of the signal in glass is slower than it is through space.
Solving the worlds problems, step by step.
No sig today...
Iridium et al. Just a bunch of space junk now.
Is it? Iridium's problem was lack of customers who needed the service and had money to pay for it. Prices where so high that few people in areas that didn't have cellular service already could afford to pay the subscription fees. Their business model wasn't viable.
In this case, there is actually a different business model and possible paying customers who actually have money and a need for internet service. Are there enough of them who have enough money to make this viable? Maybe... Given Musk's access to exceptionally low cost launch rates, this might just work out this time. I'd not bet on it either way myself.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Iridium's problem was...
Actually, AMONGST Iridium's problems was that it was not designed as a data transport system, and the horrible data capabilities that they offered were based on running a modem over their voice lines.
Iridium Next will expand those offerings to 128 kb/s to mobile, 1.5 Mb/s to marine and 8 Mb/s to fixed land stations.
This leaves a lot of room for improvement and Musk might force iridium's hand to provide faster upgrades than their 20 year turn around on iridium to Iridium Next
Well, one of the ways to profit from fast trading is by predicting the behavior of one stock on one exchange by the behavior of the same stock on another.
For example: Gold price in New York has a relation with gold price in London. If you see Gold price diving in London. You may want to fast sell gold in New York before it dives too.
Who ever places this order 1st gets the best result
This cannot be done without distant trade links where latency matters.
It's amazing the stupid things that drive technological progress.
Oh well. New tech is new tech.