[Starlink] Starlink Roaming

[Mike Puchol]

The optical links work in IR spectrum, so non-visible. They would not be a concern for aircraft the same way green lasers are.

On David’s comment "but if you can easily route traffic to a ground station that's further away and not currently saturated”, that is true as long as the path that is connected over ISL has visibility of that other ground station. I will add ISL to my tracker shortly so we can start simulating these things.

Best,

Mike
On Feb 22, 2022, 12:04 +0300, Sebastian Moeller <moeller0 at gmx.de>, wrote:
> Intersting!
>
> Silly question, giving that there are already law suits for people pointing lasers at airplanes, how are these commercial laster terminals avoiding that issue?
>
> Regards
> Sebastian
>
>
>
>
> > On Feb 22, 2022, at 08:42, Mike Puchol <mike at starlink.sx> wrote:
> >
> > I did over-simplify so the point was better understood. On the optical gateways, these exist already: https://mynaric.com/products/ground-capabilities/
> >
> > Once you have an optical mesh in orbit, the only practical way to provide it with massive capacity is optical links - there isn’t enough radio spectrum that would do it (without a massive ground gateway network with enough physical separation). You can create a network of optical gateways that guarantees a number of them will not be impared by cloud cover at any given time. Optical has the advantage of being license-free, too.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Mike
> > On Feb 22, 2022, 10:20 +0300, Dick Roy <dickroy at alum.mit.edu>, wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > From: Starlink [mailto:starlink-bounces at lists.bufferbloat.net] On Behalf Of Mike Puchol
> > > Sent: Monday, February 21, 2022 9:35 PM
> > > To: Daniel AJ Sokolov; David Lang
> > > Cc: starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net
> > > Subject: Re: [Starlink] Starlink Roaming
> > >
> > >
> > > Actually, laser links would make gateway connectivity *worse*. If we take the scenario attached, one gateway is suddenly having to serve traffic from all UTs that were not previously under coverage.
> > >
> > > A satellite under full load can saturate two gateway links by itself. If you load, say, 20 satellites in an orbital plane, onto a single gateway, over ISL, you effectively have 5% of each satellite’s capacity available (given an equal distribution of demand, of course there will be satellites with no UTs to cover etc.).
> > >
> > > [RR] I think to do this analysis correctly; one needs to consider the larger system and the time-varying loads on the components thereof. What you say is true; just a bit over-simplified to be maximally useful. Routing through complex congested networks is well-studied problem and hnts at possible solutions can probably be found thereJ)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Eventually they will go for optical gateways, it’s the only way to get enough capacity to the constellation, specially the 30k satellite version.
> > >
> > > [RR] What do you mean by “”optical gateway”? An optical link from the satellite to the ground station? That would be real expensive at least power-wise and unreliable.
> > >
> > >
> > > Best,
> > >
> > > Mike
> > >
> > > On Feb 22, 2022, 05:17 +0300, David Lang <david at lang.hm>, wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > On Mon, 21 Feb 2022, Daniel AJ Sokolov wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > On 2022-02-21 at 13:52, David Lang wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > They told me that I could try it, and it may work, may be degraded a
> > > bit, or may not work at all. They do plan to add roaming capabilities in
> > > the future (my guess is that the laser satellites will enable a lot more
> > > flexibility)
> > >
> > >
> > > Isn't that a very optimistic assessment? :-)
> > >
> > > Laser links are great for remote locations with very few users, but how
> > > could they relieve overbooking of Starlink in areas with too many users?
> > >
> > > The laser links can reduce the required density of ground stations, but
> > > they don't add capacity to the network. Any ground station not built
> > > thanks to laser links adds load to other ground stations - and, maybe
> > > more importantly, adds load to the satellite that does eventually
> > > connect to a ground station.
> > >
> > > Can laser links really help on a large scale, or are they just a small
> > > help here and there?
> > >
> > >
> > > My thinking is that the laser links will make it possible to route the traffic
> > > from wherever I am to the appropriate ground station that I'm registered with as
> > > opposed to the current bent-pipe approach where, if I move to far from my
> > > registered location, I need to talk to a different ground station.
> > >
> > > Currently there are two limits in any area for coverage:
> > >
> > > 1. satellite bandwidth
> > > 2. ground station bandwidth
> > >
> > > laser links will significantly reduce the effect of the second one.
> > >
> > > We know that they can do mobile dishes (they are testing it currently on Elon's
> > > gulfstream, FAR more mobile that I will ever be :-) )
> > >
> > > David Lang
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > Starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net
> > > https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink
> > >
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