-----Original Message-----

From: Starlink [mailto:starlink-bounces@lists.bufferbloat.net] On Behalf Of David Lang

Sent: Monday, February 21, 2022 6:18 PM

To: Daniel AJ Sokolov

Cc: starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net

Subject: Re: [Starlink] Starlink Roaming

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.

[RR] It is important to remember there is no need to go through a particular ground station.  What is necessary is to authenticate the dishy to the network. Authentication servers will probably be distributed so that it can happen quickly and the resulting flows and paths can be configured independently.

Currently there are two limits in any area for coverage:

1. satellite bandwidth                                             i

2. ground station bandwidth

[RR] It is probably a bit more complicated than this. Since the dishy and the satellites have antenna arrays apparently, lots of smart things can be done (aka SDMA). Whether or not they are being done is the question ;^)))))

laser links will significantly reduce the effect of the second one.

[RR] Ground stations have “two bandwidths”, incoming and outgoing. If one is wired and the other wireless, often the wired (optical fiber) bandwidth far exceeds the wireless just because it can preparing for the future!

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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