Correctly describing LEO capabilities

Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) constellations have turned the space industry upside down in recent years. So, it's perhaps not surprising that company executives would describe LEO functionality in ways that put the most favorable light on their SATCOM offerings.

Recently, some have commented that LEO's supposedly slow uplink speeds make them ill-suited for specific applications. Some have claimed that LEO capacity is evenly distributed across the globe, is not configurable, and can't be concentrated where demand is highest. These traits are only true for the first-generation LEO systems, not the newer constellations that will soon be deployed.

When it comes to LEO constellations, there are only two commonalities you can say with certainty. They orbit between 160 and 1,600 km in space and all have low latency connectivity. Every other characteristic is the result of architectural design.

Old vs. New

How much things have changed so fast. First-generation LEO systems were launched in 2019 and 2020. They captured global attention and reinvigorated the space industry with low-latency bandwidth, ubiquitous connectivity, and disruptive pricing. However, with a direct-to-consumer design and focus, they did have issues with delivering the uplink speeds and capacity concentration required to meet the needs of enterprise customers.

Modern, next-generation LEO architectures totally alter this paradigm. Global mesh networks in space are now possible due to next-generation technologies, such as software-defined networking and optical inter-satellite links (OISLs) that connect each satellite. Some of these constellations are being designed specifically for enterprise customer use cases, not consumers. As a result, they provide the following capabilities:

• Dynamic capacity allocation to satisfy customer demand
• Ability to concentrate more capacity into a demand hotspot than what is currently possible in GEO
• Instead of best effort services, guaranteed committed information rates (CIRs) and service level agreements (SLAs) that meet the high data requirements of the enterprise customers of today and tomorrow.
• Resiliency by design, unlike early LEO (and current GEO systems)
• Multiple satellites are always in view of a ground terminal
• Optically linked, self-repairing mesh network in space ensures always-on connectivity, even if one satellite experiences an anomaly
• Ability to land traffic at diverse landing stations

Maritime Applications

New-generation LEO capabilities make it well-suited for maritime markets. As an enterprise-class LEO network, Telesat Lightspeed meets the unique remote-to-shore connectivity requirements of the modern maritime industry.

Sophisticated antennas on each Telesat Lightspeed satellite can dynamically focus multiple Gigabits per second of capacity to a single location anywhere in the world. This eliminates network congestion at busy seaports or onboard huge cruise ships in the Caribbean or Mediterranean Sea. Maximum network efficiency also means that all this capacity can be delivered at a more compelling cost per bit.

Telesat is working with multiple terminal providers to ensure maritime service providers have a wide portfolio of terminals, optimized for the markets they wish to serve, whether it's merchant shipping, offshore energy platforms, or cruise ships. Depending on the end-customer needs and terminals selected, customers will enjoy uplink speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second. Telesat Lightspeed leverages the preferred Ka-band frequency, which provides eight times the spectrum for uplink connections over Ku-band. And Telesat Lightspeed terminals will offer higher performance than other NGSO systems.

From the "moving city" nature of cruise ships to the unique operational needs of merchant shipping, Telesat Lightspeed offers multi-Gbps link speeds and multiple Tbps of capacity in the network to meet passenger demand. Low latency connectivity allows seamless VPN access, encrypted web page access, e-commerce and entertainment applications, and real-time internet streaming for crew morale and welfare. These capabilities, including offering CIRs and SLAs, also make Telesat Lightspeed equally ideal for the off-shore energy market.

So, the next time you read about the "limitations" of LEO, take a careful look at which industry executive is being quoted. Their viewpoint could have nothing to do with the technology and everything to do with their business model.

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