The satellite connection used here uses the DVB-RCS standard to attain 2-way internet access. This equipment has only recently come to market. Two way satellite systems have been available the world over for many years, however higher speed uplink satellite have until recently only been affordable in Europe to organisations willing to invest large sums of money in expensive equipment. Older and more available VSAT (Very small aperture) satellites do not provide very fast or useable connections at all. The equivalent Inmarsat services cost somewhere in the region of 7 US dollars per minute. The system used in the posted article was 384K uplink, with downlink FTPs sustaining 100K FTP transfers. What easy to set up and affordable services are out there for the European market?
Re:difficulty of sattelite connectivity in Europe?
on
Green, Wireless Networking
·
· Score: 4, Informative
As it goes, Ku band downlink using the DVB-RCS standard which lets you get higher speed 2-way satellite links has been very difficult to get hold of in Europe up until very recently... the equipment we used was still under development at the time we carried out the activities in the article, and we are only now starting to see this sort of technology come to market, either in the UK or elsewhere in Europe... we've been after this sort of kit for about 4 years and we had to work very hard to get hold of it.
I've heard the term 'contention ratio' many times over the last few years relating to internet access. The first time I heard it was relating to modems in a rack (and phone lines) compared to the number of customers being sold dial-up accounts. This is essentially the gamble that any ISP are making... they need to keep their contention ration as high as possible to make money.
The most recent time I heard it was relating to bi-directional satellite internet access in the European market. Essentially, a supposed 'broadband satellite ISP' was waxing lyrical about beating UKs British Telecom offering...both ISPs were offering the same bandwidth of course but....
The reasoning was this: BT has a contention ratio of about 20:1, so every 1MG of bandwidth would be sold 20 times... the other ISP proudly pointed out that they had a contention ratio of about 10:1
Excellent stuff:) The best thing about it all, is that, for love nor money, neither ISP will actually sell you a satellite access point, or provide the service that they're offering on their websites..... presumably because they'd need a contention ratio of about 50:1 to actually make any money at all:]
Its hardly surprising that AMD back M$ in this area, because without Windows, the legacy i386 architecture that AMD make their business on is simply going to be superceded.
Im surprised that nobody mentions the fact that without Microsoft, the only thing holding all these linux/BSD users to i386 architecture is it's relative cheapness and availability.
Its easy to forget that M$ has been a huge force in leveraging legacy architecture onto our desktops for nigh on 20 years.
For example, I'm going to be using Mac architecture as soon as its cheap enough, because I'll be able to move to it pretty seamlessly, as I can use my legacy sun boxen or any other architecture supported by my operating system and apps. At that point it'll be good-bye Intel i386, AMD, Athlon and the host of bizarre h/w setups we've all been taught to view as normal:)
I'm afraid I have to disagree entirely, mate. I'm no neo-luddite by any stretch of the imagination... I too spend a good proportion [English is hilarious] of my time on the internet. I could, indeed, be said to be leading a 'double life' by the unobservant. Notwithstanding Mr Postman, Still and Talbot whom I cannot speak for; your assessment of the intrinsically 'good' or 'evil' nature of technology is far from clearly correct. You're allusion to the internet as a block of marble, awaiting us to sculpt meaning into its form by using it is desperately far from the truth. For example, books are not tabula rasa objects, waiting for readers to impress upon them meaning and effect. When you read the bible, the koran, Herman Hess or whoever, is it not the author that steers you're experience of reading?
There are many forms of media in our lives, and the internet is just one of them.. the fact that the internet is common in our curlture and accessible to many folks does not detract from its power to affect, to sometimes enourmous proportions, our culture, purpose and ultimate ly 'mystical' existence.
Some instances of a particlular media may merely 'incline' us to consider something... bland books, poor television programs or vacuous theatre productions, but there are some instances that inspire us and drive us to better our existance, or in some cases to cause blight, cruelty and ruinous events.... Language, for example, has allowed our brains to extend far beyond the confines of our boney skulls and enables us to communicate and share ideas. If you've ever been in the presence of a great speaker, you will know instantly that words are not merely emtpy sounds awaiting our interpretations, but are weighted vehicles for the influencial dissemination of ideas, and are very seldom 'neutral'.
So my point is this: the internet is not a neutral object awaiting our interpretation, but is a rich and varied media that can influence you .. it can shock, scare, amuse, frighten.... and more things than you can find in a thesaurus or dictionary, to boot; and it is NOT guided or limited by your own mind...
Isn't the whole point about this bizarre and peculiar IT world that we live in that a 'different way of thinking' has brought us the Internet, GNU, Linux and the myriad of other splendid things into the world?
I heard this kind of nonsense five years ago..
We're brought us all closer to the world of 'business'.. a bit of common ground has formed... but do you really think that makes what most of these guys are up to OK or 'fair enough'?...
The reason that folks are satisfied by M$ is because they've been trained to accept what they are given.. Microsoft has been working hard and very successfully towards this kind of atmosphere for years... how many of you're Colleges and Universities phased out Unix for a bulk deal with
Microsoft..?? And what kind of IT are graduates learning then preaching about??
Have you all just taken the money and run, coz suddenly your skills are useful for a few years?
Are you prepared to die for your beliefs, or just to dye your hair?
There are all sorts of strange and peculiar people out there and I've never met a _normal_ one yet - some of them do strange, peculiar and unexpected things with open software... surely releasing binaries in addition to source just broadens the audience of the software increasing the chances of one of these odd types, doing something good/useful/helpful with your lump of software?
Slashdot Mirror
Three wheels AND music - still no ice cream though
iTrike
Theres a link on the page to an article on the airport extreme
http://www2.es.psand.net/airport/
Another mirror:
http://ds.dial.pipex.com/psand/airport/
The satellite connection used here uses the DVB-RCS standard to attain 2-way internet access. This equipment has only recently come to market. Two way satellite systems have been available the world over for many years, however higher speed uplink satellite have until recently only been affordable in Europe to organisations willing to invest large sums of money in expensive equipment. Older and more available VSAT (Very small aperture) satellites do not provide very fast or useable connections at all.
The equivalent Inmarsat services cost somewhere in the region of 7 US dollars per minute. The system used in the posted article was 384K uplink, with downlink FTPs sustaining 100K FTP transfers. What easy to set up and affordable services are out there for the European market?
As it goes, Ku band downlink using the DVB-RCS standard which lets you get higher speed 2-way satellite links has been very difficult to get hold of in Europe up until very recently... the equipment we used was still under development at the time we carried out the activities in the article, and we are only now starting to see this sort of technology come to market, either in the UK or elsewhere in Europe... we've been after this sort of kit for about 4 years and we had to work very hard to get hold of it.
There is a mirror for this at
http://mirror1.psand.net/green/
I've heard the term 'contention ratio' many times over the last few years relating to internet access. The first time I heard it was relating to modems in a rack (and phone lines) compared to the number of customers being sold dial-up accounts. This is essentially the gamble that any ISP are making... they need to keep their contention ration as high as possible to make money.
:) The best thing about it all, is that, for love nor money, neither ISP will actually sell you a satellite access point, or provide the service that they're offering on their websites..... presumably because they'd need a contention ratio of about 50:1 to actually make any money at all :]
The most recent time I heard it was relating to bi-directional satellite internet access in the European market. Essentially, a supposed 'broadband satellite ISP' was waxing lyrical about beating UKs British Telecom offering...both ISPs were offering the same bandwidth of course but....
The reasoning was this: BT has a contention ratio of about 20:1, so every 1MG of bandwidth would be sold 20 times... the other ISP proudly pointed out that they had a contention ratio of about 10:1
Excellent stuff
Its hardly surprising that AMD back M$ in this area, because without Windows, the legacy i386 architecture that AMD make their business on is simply going to be superceded.
:)
:/
Im surprised that nobody mentions the fact that without Microsoft, the only thing holding all these linux/BSD users to i386 architecture is it's relative cheapness and availability.
Its easy to forget that M$ has been a huge force in leveraging legacy architecture onto our desktops for nigh on 20 years.
For example, I'm going to be using Mac architecture as soon as its cheap enough, because I'll be able to move to it pretty seamlessly, as I can use my legacy sun boxen or any other architecture supported by my operating system and apps. At that point it'll be good-bye Intel i386, AMD, Athlon and the host of bizarre h/w setups we've all been taught to view as normal
.. well maybe not that quick
I'm afraid I have to disagree entirely, mate. I'm no neo-luddite by
any stretch of the imagination... I too spend a good proportion
[English is hilarious] of my time on the internet. I could, indeed, be
said to be leading a 'double life' by the unobservant. Notwithstanding
Mr Postman, Still and Talbot whom I cannot speak for; your assessment
of the intrinsically 'good' or 'evil' nature of technology is far from
clearly correct. You're allusion to the internet as a block of marble,
awaiting us to sculpt meaning into its form by using it is desperately
far from the truth. For example, books are not tabula rasa objects,
waiting for readers to impress upon them meaning and effect. When you
read the bible, the koran, Herman Hess or whoever, is it not the
author that steers you're experience of reading?
There are many forms of media in our lives, and the internet is just
one of them
and accessible to many folks does not detract from its power to
affect, to sometimes enourmous proportions, our culture, purpose and
ultimate ly 'mystical' existence.
Some instances of a particlular media may merely 'incline' us to
consider something... bland books, poor television programs or vacuous
theatre productions, but there are some instances that inspire us and
drive us to better our existance, or in some cases to cause blight,
cruelty and ruinous events.... Language, for example, has allowed our
brains to extend far beyond the confines of our boney skulls and
enables us to communicate and share ideas. If you've ever been in the
presence of a great speaker, you will know instantly that words are
not merely emtpy sounds awaiting our interpretations, but are weighted
vehicles for the influencial dissemination of ideas, and are very
seldom 'neutral'.
So my point is this: the internet is not a neutral object awaiting our
interpretation, but is a rich and varied media that can influence you
.. it can shock, scare, amuse, frighten.... and more things than you
can find in a thesaurus or dictionary, to boot; and it is NOT guided
or limited by your own mind...
Isn't the whole point about this bizarre and peculiar IT world that we live in that a 'different way of thinking' has brought us the Internet, GNU, Linux and the myriad of other splendid things into the world?
I heard this kind of nonsense five years ago..
We're brought us all closer to the world of 'business'.. a bit of common ground has formed... but do you really think that makes what most of these guys are up to OK or 'fair enough'?...
The reason that folks are satisfied by M$ is because they've been trained to accept what they are given.. Microsoft has been working hard and very successfully towards this kind of atmosphere for years... how many of you're Colleges and Universities phased out Unix for a bulk deal with
Microsoft..?? And what kind of IT are graduates learning then preaching about??
Have you all just taken the money and run, coz suddenly your skills are useful for a few years?
Are you prepared to die for your beliefs, or just to dye your hair?
There are all sorts of strange and peculiar people out there and I've never met a _normal_ one yet - some of them do strange, peculiar and unexpected things with open software... surely releasing binaries in addition to source just broadens the audience of the software increasing the chances of one of these odd types, doing something good/useful/helpful with your lump of software?