Telefónica International Wholesale Services (TIWS) has completed live in-orbit testing across a range of applications on Telesat’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Phase 1 satellite.
TIWS partnered with global satellite operator Telesat to explore the performance and feasibility of leveraging LEO satellites for high-end services. They concluded that the tests demonstrated “superior near fibre-like performance” and that TelesatLEO could be a viable option for wireless backhaul.
The results presented a substantial improvement in performance over geostationary orbit (GEO) links, without the use of compression or transmission control protocol (TCP) acceleration techniques that are typically required in 650ms latency GEO environments, TIWS said.
Applications tested over Telesat LEO resulted in observed round trip latency of 30-60ms without any packet loss. Test scenarios included high-definition video streaming; video conferencing with teams; remote desktop connection to seamlessly manage a remote computer; a VPN connection without any delay or outages; FTP-encrypted file transfers of 2 GB in both directions; and IPSec tunnel encryption with no reduction in the performance of the link.
“As we plan, design and build our offerings to provide best-in-class connectivity for our customers, we are eager to explore how cutting-edge technologies like Telesat LEO can integrate with our global connectivity infrastructure,” said Gustavo Arditti, TIWS Satellite Business Unit Director. “Across every application tested, Telesat LEO delivered an outstanding performance, with significant improvements over what we can achieve via GEO satellites today.”
“The ability to demonstrate fibre-like performance via satellite across a number of applications that perform poorly on GEO satellite backhaul is a testament to the capabilities of our Telesat LEO network,” added Erwin Hudson, Vice President, Telesat LEO. “With its high-throughput links, ultra-low latency, and disruptive economics, Telesat LEO offers an unparalleled value proposition to expand the reach of 4G and 5G networks.”