Technocom - Terrestrial Overlay and Virtual Private Networks

In one moment the wide geographic expanse of Russia becomes obvious. It is 8 pm and 68°F in Moscow and 2 am and 32°F in Kharbarovsk. The country spans eleven time zones and everything from the deep freeze of the Arctic to mountains to coastal plains.

That kind of environment is the best argument for satellite communications. One service provider that recognized that opportunity was Technocom, a daughter company of UK-based St. Petersburg Telecom. Technocom wanted to supplement the network run by the national public carrier Ros Telecom. The new satellite network would be an overlay and also supply virtual private networks for businesses as well. As the authorized Intelsat signatory, Technocom would tie the new network into its three 18-meter Intelsat A stations and a 5 ESS switch in Moscow.

But Technocom still needed to select the right kind of satellite network to make its idea work on technical and business levels. After deciding that demand assigned multiple access (DAMA) was the right technology, the company began a competitive procurement process. A request for proposal went out to the leading DAMA vendors, including what at the time was the Satellite Telecommunications division of Scientific-Atlanta. Now part of ViaSat, it emerged as the best DAMA product in the Technocom bid.

The network was implemented with Skylinx satellite network terminals and satellite antennas, all from ViaSat. The network includes an 18-meter hub, 25 sites with 7-meter antennas, and another 45 sites using 4.5-meter reflectors. The Skylinx terminals are all DAMA-capable, but where it is called for, can operate in MCPC mode as well.

A combination of voice and data travels on the network from Western Russia to as far away as the city of Khabarovsk in the east, and into some other CIS countries as well. A total of 800 Skylinx channel units are included so far. Data speeds are up to 64 kbps. All traffic is carried at C-band frequencies and occupies a full transponder on Intelsat 604.

The network was a particular challenge for the installation team. Some of the earth stations must operate in extremely rugged environments and intemperate climates. The 18-meter Moscow hub was a large-scale integration project just by itself. Arriving in six sets of crates, the cargo had to be flown into Moscow in a special wide-body cargo plane. On-location in February, snow was cleared from the site of the foundation for the earth station pedestal. Once the base was complete, workers dressed in heavy weather suits were hoisted into the air by two cranes to build the framework and install the reflector panels to complete the massive structure.

"Through it all, there were never any issues or claims regarding our equipment," said Cisar Ladislav, the technical lead on the network for ViaSat. "We worked with the customer on some integration issues, but in the end made everything work together as promised."

Like most networks, Technocom would like to boost data throughput in the future. Fortunately Skylinx terminals are engineered to accept new channel cards to easily add new features. Technocom is considering an upgrade package that would include a move to Ku-band, enabling smaller, lower-cost antennas. But the key to the network upgrade would be the new Skylinx High Speed Channel Unit, that gives users data speeds up to 2 megabits-per-second. The most important advantage of the HSCU is that it can be added very quickly in a virtual "hot-swap", with almost no terminal reconfiguration and no interruption in service.

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