The Connection is in the Satcoms. In my various recent columns in this space I have focused on important, and ongoing, key thematic developments in the communications solutions marketplace which are separately, and collectively, creating manifold expansion opportunities for the satellite communications industry to leverage the several advantages that it has over all other communications technologies and platforms.
In my March contribution I looked at Navigating North to the Next Oil & Gas Communications Horizon, in connection with new oil & gas exploration opportunities in the Arctic Basin. In February I examined Communication Deployments and Complex Humanitarian Disasters. Prior to that, I profiled some of the fundamental aspects of Military Force Deployment in the Maritime Space. These various themes all have linkages – geographic-oriented, market-oriented, applications-oriented, technologies-oriented – which all stem from a shared dependence upon satellite communications, a characteristic that GVF serves to highlight through creating and promoting intra-industry dialogues within the satcoms arena, and inter-industry dialogues between the satellite solutions providers and their solutions-user customers, across all the verticals which comprise these interlinked market environments.
For example, the first and second GVF Broadband Maritime Communications Conferences (in February 2009 and February 2010) were devoted to the maritime sector in South East Asia. But, we are now embarking on a unique two-stream program dedicated not only to the broad maritime communications solutions market across the European region, but also to the communications requirements of European naval forces as they engage as much more than simply defenders of national border integrity, more than protectors of their respective national territorial waters.
Broadband Maritime Europe 2010: Innovation in Communications Solutions for the Sea Lanes will maintain the focus on the key elements of maritime satellite communications that are common to all ocean regions and seaways, but introduces regionally-unique topics and themes, such as the opening to year-round navigation of arctic seaways affected by climate change and melting polar sea ice. Whereas Communications Systems in Naval Dynamics 2010, which comprises the minor stream of the broader conference program, represents an innovative embarkation into what may be described as the "extended" military vertical space.
Our examination of the widespread deployment of advanced communications technologies and services that are constantly accessible anywhere at sea will focus on the following key subject areas:
Access to applications and networks that meet today’s imperative for constant, seamless and cost-effective connectivity to ensure optimized exploitation of physical maritime assets, maximized passenger satisfaction, maximized crew welfare, and optimized navigational safety. E-mail, Internet, VPN and VoIP applications help vessel operators retain skilled maritime talent, increase and improve interactions between operations at sea and management on-shore, and realize cost savings that come with tighter operations and faster, more efficient information exchange.
New service provisioning, delivering scalable ‘always on’ broadband applications with Quality of Service and Service Level Agreement guarantees that go beyond basic ‘pay-by-the-minute’ service types and which facilitate greater predictability in mission critical delivery, as well as accuracy in the calculation of the cost of communications and, therefore, improved corporate overhead budgeting.
Key hardware technology developments in the design and deployment of state-of-the-art stabilized and ruggedized satellite terminal equipment, built to withstand weather on the high-seas and maintain constant reliability while enabling effective satellite tracking and maintenance of signal integrity.
This is all because, whilst there has already been much recent improvement in the availability of advanced communications at sea, it is only now that the maritime communications environment is progressing fully, from a mainly narrowband communications arena, and into the broadband age, exploiting the increased synergies of advances in satellite equipment technologies and the availability and accessibility of new bandwidth across, and linking, all the world’s oceans.
Global warming and the extended opening of north-polar seaways to commercial shipping navigation will have major implications for the entire global commercial maritime environment. However, for Europe, in particular, these implications relate to significant reductions in the duration of voyages from the world’s major manufacturing centers in East and South East Asia to the major container centers of Europe, and therefore of imports shipping costs. With the prospect of heavy, and growing, shipping traffic flows through the region, the demand for north polar region-accessible satellite communications capacity can only similarly increase.
The Communications Systems in Naval Dynamics 2010 stream will consider Europe’s naval forces as part of the "extended" military vertical, as the physical expression of the desire of governments to extend their geographic and political reach in the fields of disaster mitigation and management policy, humanitarian policy, and international development policy.
These various types of situation – which do not involve state-actors in direct conflict, and yet necessarily involve a government-directed, or international organization-directed, role for naval resources – can often command a requirement for cutting-edge communications networking solutions that is almost as critical as that needed in times of war. This is true whether naval force is engaged to facilitate air-sea rescue; provide border protection; to act as coast guard; to deploy fisheries patrols, and human and drug trafficking interdiction; augment the efforts of police and civilian maritime rescue organizations; protect commercial shipping; assist in natural disaster relief efforts; provide physical support assets for development agencies; or, engage in anti-terror and security guarantee operations. In all cases effective communications are an essential underpinning of success.
In the wholly commercially-oriented Broadband Maritime arena, some of the key issues for solutions providers and users may be defined as:
· Definition of the metrics of the maritime communications marketplace;
· Supply & demand – can satellite resources supply keep-up with maritime sector demand growth?
· C-band, Ku-band, L-band – how to leverage spectrum for vendor and user competitive advantage
Spectrum switching for high-seas global roaming.
These will be addressed in a dialogue centered on ‘The Maritime Communications Marketplace: Satellite Communications Demand & Supply Shifts across the Sector’. Similarly, the conference focus on ‘Segmenting Europe’s Maritime Broadband Satellite Communications Requirement: The Ocean-Going & Inshore, Merchant, Leisure & Passenger Markets’ will examine:
· Satellite networking to optimize the effectiveness of fleet management applications on the high-seas;
· Satellite networking for cargo management and cargo owner requirements;
· Satellite links for crew welfare and crew retention;
· Passenger communications requirement for short-duration transit.
Satellite Operators and Network Providers will profile the ‘Deployment of New Global Broadband & Narrowband Services Provision’ from the point of view of:
· The evolution of new services;
· The emergence of new maritime global coverage systems;
· Satellite operator future footprint & service evolution over the oceans.
This latter theme will be extended to include the implications of climate change on ‘Evolving Requirements in Satellite Networking: Expanding Maritime Communications for an Arctic Horizon’ in respect of:
· Maritime communications & the opening of higher-latitude commercial navigation;
· Non-GEO satellite platforms – the terminal & antenna environment at 75 degrees-plus North;
· Elliptical & inclined – the availability of non-GEO commercial satellite bandwidth capacity.
Additionally, through discussion centered on two aspects of the satellite terminal/antenna market, ‘Supply-Side Challenges & Design Parameters’ and GVF Installer Training Programme: Evolution for the Stabilized Antenna Market, the conference will offer an examination of:
· Available technologies & terminal equipment in an expanding vendor market;
· Remote spectrum switching: C-band & Ku-band / linear polarization & circular polarization;
· Latest satcoms technology gains: DVB-S2, ACM, etc.;
· The vendor/customer interface: Key factors in the customer’s equipment purchasing choices;
· The vendor/customer interface: Installation schedules & exploiting practical install opportunities;
· Self-pointing & Self-stabilizing satellite antenna technologies;
· Terminal design/robustness for hostile environmental conditions;
· Demand, supply & antenna pricing evolution;
· Advanced technical requirements for mobile stabilized antenna installations;
· Installation training support from the global industry association for fixed and mobile satellite;
· Growth of the stabilized antenna installation services market
Setting-out key issues such as those given here, and helping to ensure that they are comprehensively detailed and thoroughly understood, is an important contribution to defining the evolution of the markets for which the satellite solution is the natural, and obvious, partner. More information about getting involved in this contribution may be obtained from me at: martin.jarrold@gvf.org
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Martin Jarrold is the Chief of International Program Development of the GVF. He can be reached at:martin.jarrold@gvf.org
