INDUSTRY INTERVIEW: Inmarsat
“D” D’Ambrosio
Vice President of Government Services
Inmarsat
A U.S. Naval Academy graduate, “D” D’Ambrosio is both a 20-year military veteran and a veteran of the government satellite industry sector. He’s been involved with FSS, including commercial X-band and MSS, both GEO and LEO. Now as Inmarsat’s vice president of government services, based in Washington, D.C., he’s using his experience to continue building the company’s thriving government business.
Q: What is Inmarsat’s new BGAN service?
A: Inmarsat’s Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service is a pioneering technology. It is the world’s first mobile communications service to offer voice and broadband data, accessible simultaneously, through a truly portable device. It is also the first to offer guaranteed IP data rates on demand.
BGAN represents a significant step change in the capability of mobile satellite services. It is faster, smaller, lighter, easier to use and quicker to set up than any satellite communications service before it. It is packed with functionality and delivers data speeds of up to half-a-megabit per second, and yet it is as easy to carry as a laptop and allows the user to establish a functional profile suitable to his needs.
The range of BGAN devices can support single or multiple simultaneous users, offering access to e-mail, Web browsing, FTP, VPNs, live video or audio transmission, and voice telephony. It has been tested and shown to work with Type 1 encryption products.
In addition to the shared IP channel of up to 492 kbps, BGAN offers a separate guaranteed or “streaming” IP channel of up to 256 kbps. It also offers a 4 kbps voice channel and a 64 kbps ISDN capability for legacy applications. Data interfaces are both wired and wireless, including Bluetooth and WLAN 802.11b.
Six years in development, BGAN has been designed for mobile users who want dependable, secure broadband access when working in locations with an unreliable or non-existent telecoms infrastructure. This has advantages for a broad range of industry sectors and NGOs such as aid agencies—and particularly for government communications, including military and first responder communications.
Q: Why is it relevant to the military?
A: Current MILSATCOM provisions are not meeting the demand of global operations, and the reliance on communications is only going to increase, due to the network-centric doctrine adopted by the Department of Defense. It is widely acknowledged that commercial satellite communications services are a strong option for plugging that gap.
We see Inmarsat services as augmenting those of MILSATCOM, sitting alongside to meet MILSATCOM shortfalls and provide the additional bandwidth.
BGAN works perfectly with the IP environment of network-centric warfare, and actually extends the boundaries of that environment to beyond the line of sight. It means that BGAN is interoperable with existing and planned MILSATCOM platforms and, combined with its compact size and low weight, BGAN integrates easily within the communications mix of the warfighter.
We recently gave the first U.S. demonstration of BGAN at the Defense Interoperability Communications Exercise (DICE-06) at Fort Monroe, Va., and had a great response. As well as simultaneous voice and data services, we showed the land vehicular version of BGAN as a strong communications-on-themove solution.
Q: Where can BGAN be used?
A: BGAN is currently accessed via the two Inmarsat-4 satellites that were launched in March and November last year. The Inmarsat I-4s are the largest and most sophisticated commercial communications satellites ever launched and are part of a $1.5 billion investment by Inmarsat.
The first satellite, in the Indian Ocean Region, sits at 64 degrees East and covers Europe, Africa, the Middle East and most of Asia; the second satellite, in the Atlantic Ocean Region, sits at 53 degrees West and covers the Americas. With the two I-4s, we cover 85 per cent of the world’s land mass. The third Inmarsat I-4 satellite, Pacific Ocean Region (POR), is planned to be launched in the mid-2007 timeframe. The POR satellite will be positioned at 178 degrees East and will cover the entire Pacific Ocean region, from the West Coast of North America to the Asia Pacific Rim.
The Inmarsat I-4 satellites will be part of an 11-strong constellation of Inmarsat satellites that orbit the Earth, providing coverage to any hot spot or regions in which military operations are underway or planned.
Q: How do you see Inmarsat’s work with the military evolving in the future?
A: BGAN was a new approach for Inmarsat because we started its development with extensive research into our end users’ needs. By building the service around these value propositions, we have ensured that we meet the diverse needs of the Inmarsat community.
For our military users who have been asking industry for IPbased systems, it has enabled us to ensure that BGAN can be used with existing and planned MILSATCOM applications, and test for a compatibility that will give the same experience of using BGAN as using any other MILSATCOM solution. ♦
