WCA May 2019

From the Americas

Another of Trump’s priorities, Mr Droegemeier said, was to remove what the administration considers unnecessary regulations and administrative hurdles to research, and he cited “guesstimates” that the time spent fulfilling compliance requirements costs the US billions of dollars. When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first satellite, in 1957, only the US government had the financial resources to develop similar technology. That, today, those needs can be met by private industry is Mr Droegemeier’s rallying call. Orbital high-capacity to the elite LeoSat Enterprises has a plan to develop and launch dozens of low-earth orbit satellites. Rather than focusing on delivering broadband to the masses, LeoSat Enterprises wants to do business with banks, governments, multi- national corporations and other enterprise-level customers. An interconnected constellation of 78 to 108 LEO satellites would serve them with a high-capacity (up to 5.2Gbit/s), low-latency (as low as 20 milliseconds) backbone. In February, Light Reading reported that Mark Rigolle, LeoSat’s CEO, was “drawn to this particular project because it is designed to do something different than everybody else is trying to do, [so] we’ve decided to go after the corporate market.” Mr Rigolle, a satellite industry executive previously involved with O3b Networks, SES SA and Kacific, believes that LeoSat’s approach will help it secure big deals with a select group of enterprise-level customers. LeoSat, which believes an investment of about $3.5 billion will be needed to fulfil its vision, claims to have over $1.2 billion in customer commitments. Examples of companies with pre-launch deals with LeoSat include DCS Telecom (a telecoms provider for Middle East, Africa and Asia), GlobalSat Inc (pan-American communications services provider), Globecomm Systems Inc (a connectivity provider serving the enterprise, telecoms, energy and government sectors), CopaSat (communications provider for the US government and military) and Supernet, an enterprise network provider based in Pakistan. LeoSat satellites will orbit at an altitude of 1,400km (about 870 miles), roughly six times higher than the International Space Station and twice as high as anything similar being planned by OneWeb and Starlink. The satellites will be equipped with north-south and east-west lasers that will allow for an interconnected, fishnet-like arrangement and will, therefore, avoid the “bent pipe” architecture that satellites tend to use to relay data in conjunction with fibre-connected gateway stations on the ground. LeoSat believes that its approach can rival terrestrial networks: “It’s a place that satellite has never played,” Mr Rigolle said. LeoSat’s plan is to deploy 78 satellites to provide global coverage, and then enhance that by adding more to the

constellation in increments. If all goes to plan, LeoSat intends to conduct its first launch in 2022. The plan was approved by the FCC in late 2018, but funding, finalising the design and obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals will all need to be put into place. Bumblebee backpacks Researchers at the University of Washington have developed tiny sensor-loaded bumblebee backpacks to collect data on farms. Reported in The Engineer in February, the bee backpacks weigh just 102 milligrams, with rechargeable batteries making up the bulk and around 30 milligrams left over for sensors and memory storage. Temperature, humidity and light intensity readings can all be made, but onboard data is severely limited to just 30kb. The battery, however, is good for approximately seven hours of operation. When the bees return to their hive at the end of each day, the batteries are recharged wirelessly, and stored data is uploaded via a technique known as ambient backscatter that makes use of residual radio waves. It’s thought the system could replace the use of drones on smart farms. Drones are currently used for environmental monitoring but have limited endurance.

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Wire & Cable ASIA – May/June 2019