[Starlink] DataCenters in Space (was Re: fiber IXPs in space)

[Michael Richardson]

Ulrich Speidel <u.speidel at auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
    > Where do I even start? The lack of substantial bandwidth between space
    > and ground? The extra latency between ground and space compared to
    > terrestrial cloud, especially as terrestrial cloud edge can move much
    > closer to customers when space can't? The fact that every LEO satellite
    > is both a few 100 km from every customer and out of the customer's
    > range depending on when you look? That low temperatures in space don't
    > mean superconductive chips that produce zero heat, and that that heat
    > is difficult to get rid of in space? That generating power in space is
    > orders of magnitude more expensive than on the ground?

Oh, yeah, you are totally right on all of these points.
* Not all DC processing is user-facing though!
* Some are just pure compute loads.
* Some of the customers for these DCs might be in space in the future.

    > Just because Starlink can provide a service somewhere between DSL and
    > low to medium grade fibre to a few million around the globe it's not
    > "done". Even with 10x the number of satellites and a couple of times
    > the current capacity per satellite, Starlink isn't going to supply more
    > than a couple of 100 million at best, and that's not even accounting
    > for growth in demand from IOT...

Agreed.

I think that the useful/interesting result of this effort will be a
peer-reviewed model with some parameters that can be plugged into.
At 2025 prices, space-DC might not be useful.
Perhaps at 2035 prices, the balance might change.




--
Michael Richardson <mcr+IETF at sandelman.ca>   . o O ( IPv6 IøT consulting )
           Sandelman Software Works Inc, Ottawa and Worldwide




-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 515 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.bufferbloat.net/pipermail/starlink/attachments/20230420/dbab1737/attachment.sig>