The Small Cell to the Satellite Terminal: Integrating the

VSAT and the Small Cell – In the Village & at 40,000 feet

Richard Deasington

GVF February 2014

iDirect in the Village and at 40,000 Feet

• Today we have well over 50 cell backhaul networks in operation

• Strong relationships with mobile equipment vendors to ensure

interoperability

• Largest deployed network has 1200+ sites in

• iDirect leads the maritime market both directly and through our

work with Inmarsat GX

• iDirect is a large aero player, through Panasonic, Honeywell /

Inmarsat GX / Gogo …

Who Are the Unreachable ?

• Biggest target – 1 billion people in rural and remote

locations with no cellular coverage

• Using small cells and satellite for low cost village connectivity is

a market that we have created

• Working with the Small Cell Forum where I lead the Rural SIG

• Mobility – providing cellular services on moving

platforms

• Maritime from cruise ships to cargo and tankers vessels

• Aero from large jets to business jets

• COWs and COLTs for events and emergencies

Rural connectivity challenges

5%

6%

52%

6%

31%

Which of the following do you think represents the greatest challenge in providing rural connectivity?

Lack of demand/user base

Cost of base station/Node B

Cost of building backhaul

Availability of affordable handsets anddevices

Challenging business model due tolow ARPU

• How do we solve the backhaul challenge?

Source: Informa UK Ltd.

Small Cells and Rural Coverage

• Public Access Small Cells offer an economic way to

provide coverage to small population groups

• Macro cell can provide extensive geographic coverage, but

often not relevant/cost effective for very small communities

• Small Cells can provide coverage up to a few kilometers

depending on power, antennas etc.

• Small cells can be networked together with fiber, microwave,

FSO or even plain Ethernet if more than one is required for

coverage or capacity

• Site and Power are easily supported, but the key issue

is Backhaul…

Rural Public Access Small Cells

Photo: Tecom FC1080

• Building on residential and

enterprise small cells the

outdoor models typically

support:

• 2G, 3G and / or LTE

• Fully outdoor IP65 – IP67

housing

• 250mW to 10w power output

• 16 – 64 voice calls

• HSPA 14.4 Mbit/s down and

5.6 Mbit/s up

Specialist Rural Small Cells

• Several firms have specialized small cells focused

on low ARPU rural sites… Altobridge, VNL, Vanu,

Lemko

• Typically use a vanilla small cell enhanced with

optimization software, extra power amplifiers, solar

power controllers…

• The best are able to deliver voice call < 5 kbit/s,

zero calls => zero traffic, compression and

cacheing data

• More expensive than vanilla small cells, but rapid

payback through reduced satellite b/w Photo: Altobridge Lite Site

Satellite Backhaul – Ubiquitous Coverage

• If fiber or microwave backhaul are available they are

first choice – but in rural deployments (developing or

developed world) often absent…

• Satellite meets the following needs:

• Rural and remote where no infrastructure is available

• Needs for mobility – planes, trains, ships, cells on wheels

• Rapid deployment – in hours rather than weeks or months

• Temporary links awaiting arrival of fiber / microwave

• Alternate routes for diversity at key installations

• Economic off-load / overflow

• Military level security (TRANSEC)

Satellite Solution

• What equipment do you need to make this work?

Why High Throughput Satellites ?

• New generation of satellites that provides greater

throughput by means of:

• Frequency re-use (just like the use of small cells in hotspots)

• More powerful beams that allow more efficiency (bits/Hz)

• Cell sites need high

capacity links

• Significant cost

reductions per MHz

of capacity

Eutelsat's KA-SAT spot beams coverage over Europe (different colors show frequency reuse)

Typical Deployment

Typical Deployment

Typical Deployment

Typical Deployment – On the Ground

• Typical small town

installation

• Backhaul using satellite with

a 90cm antenna

• Enhanced small cell used to

provide coverage

• Power available here but in

many sites solar power is

required

Source: Honeywell

Is There a Market for Aero Connectivity ?

What Are the Issues for Aero Connectivity ?

•Technical Issues

• Driving the steerable antenna – OpenAMIP

• Beam switching – especially for Ka band

• Doppler compensation

•Regulatory Issues

• Putting any gear on aircraft requires certification of

the design, s/w, h/w, installer, maintainer…

Choices…

•Customers such as Panasonic, GoGo etc. offer

services to airlines

• Inmarsat GX will offer aero services with

Honeywell building the gear (with iDirect inside)

•Build your own network using iDirect aero

terminals and additional software (AIMS)

Aero Certifications

•E8000 AR XL is a 19 inch

rack mount remote

•E8000 AE is an ARINC

enclosure housing 850MP

Why iDirect for Small Cell Backhaul ?

• iDirect focuses on the carrier and enterprise markets

• Our equipment allows an operator to deliver a

guaranteed (and measured) SLA

• A leader in the field of mobile satcoms

• Economic systems can provide links

from < 1Mbit/s to 100 Mbit/s per site

Summary

• Small Cells offer an attractive means of providing

mobile coverage to small and mobile communities

• Combined with carrier class satellite they can be

installed anywhere, including mobile locations, rapidly

and economically

• 2G, 3G and LTE each have a

role to play in today’s rural

roll-out strategies – and all

work well over satellite

Photo: Altobridge Lite Site

Questions ?