VSAT Industry Looks Toward Complete Implementation of Interference Mitigation Initiatives
NEW YORK -- The very small aperture terminal (VSAT) industry expects current initiatives to help mitigate interference and resolve interference instances quickly, VSAT industry executives said Wednesday at the Content and Communications World SATCON conference in New York. The rapid and successful deployment of VSAT units worldwide has created a need for better interference mitigation, and better training is needed for personnel who install the terminals, they said.
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"The satellite industry is a victim of its own success,” said David Hartshorn, secretary general of the Global VSAT Forum (GVF). Some countries deploy as many as 30,000 units per month, he said. Business plans are changing and the amount of money available for training those involved in installation isn’t keeping up, he added.
Implementation of the Carrier ID feature will address the problems around interference, said Mark Rawlins, head of Payload Engineering and Operations at Eutelsat. “It won’t solve everything, but in the majority of cases, it allows us to get to the source of the problem faster.” It works independent of the type of carrier, said Roger Franklin, CEO of Crystal Solutions, a network management systems provider for the video industry. The technology for Carrier ID was approved by the Digital Video Broadcasting standards group and the official stamp of approval is expected early next year, he added.
Digital carriers are expected to comment in an FCC rulemaking proceeding aimed at streamlining satellite communications Part 25 rules, said Franklin. The proceeding involves requiring the implementation of an Automatic Transmitter Identification System signal for digital carriers, he said.
GVF is addressing the personnel training problem, said Greg Selzer, online learning account manager at SatProf, a provider of learning material for satellite technicians and engineers. “The training is focused on how to install a remote terminal correctly without creating uplink interference,” he said. This includes resetting the polarization and pointing to the satellite correctly, he said.
Although most interference is accidental, the amount of intentional jamming has increased, the VSAT executives said. Last month, Eutelsat’s transmission of three international networks, including BBC, was deliberately jammed by Iran, said Rawlins. “The intention is to stop delivery of information or TV services,” he said. “We've got very little in the way of tools to handle that.” The company is developing a new way of handling interference by trying to reduce the sensitivity of its signals, he said.
Another issue for the satellite industry is spectrum availability, Hartshorn said. “The satellite industry is facing off against the wireless industry,” he said. The wireless industry “is hungry for more spectrum” and they're coming after satellite and broadcast industry spectrum, he added.