Seminar Report

On

STAR LINK AND SPACE INTERNET

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the award of the degree of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
IN
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Submitted by
Sahil Gupta

2017BITE045

Department of Information Technology

National Institute of Technology Srinagar, J&K
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the seminar titled STAR LINK AND SPACE INTERNET has been

presented by Sahil Gupta (2017BITE045) in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award

of the degree of Bachelor of Technology in Information Technology.

Arooj Nissar

Seminar Coordinator
Department of Information Technology
NIT Srinagar, J&K
 STAR LINK AND SPACE INTERNET | 2021

Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 1
Space Internet............................................................................................................................................ 1
Working of Satellite Internet......................................................................................................................... 2
Satellite ..................................................................................................................................................... 2
Gateways ................................................................................................................................................... 2
Antenna dish and modem.......................................................................................................................... 3
Limitations ................................................................................................................................................ 3
Starlink .......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Services: .................................................................................................................................................... 4
Working: ................................................................................................................................................... 4
Benefits of Starlink over other satellites and internet services: ................................................................ 5
Challenges faced: ...................................................................................................................................... 5
Solutions used by SpaceX ......................................................................................................................... 5
Similar or competitive systems ................................................................................................................. 7
References ..................................................................................................................................................... 8

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, NIT SRINAGAR I

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Introduction

Internet services are now part of humanity’s basic infrastructure and an important means of delivering a
wide variety of public services to the world’s people. Currently, about 4 billion people, more than half the
world’s population, do not have access to reliable Internet networks. And that is because the traditional
ways to deliver the Internet — fiber-optic cables or wireless networks — cannot take it everywhere on
Earth. In many remote areas or places with difficult terrain, it is not feasible or viable to set up cables or
mobile towers. [1]

Space Internet: Space/Satellite Internet access

is Internet access provided through
communication satellites. [2]
Space-based Internet systems have been in use for
several years now — but only for a small number
of users. Also, most of the existing systems use
satellites in geostationary orbit. This orbit is
located at a height of 35,786 km over the Earth’s
surface, directly above the Equator. Satellites in
this orbit move at speeds of about 11,000 km per
hour, and complete one revolution of the Earth at
the same time that the earth rotates once on its
axis. To the observer on the ground, therefore, a satellite in a geostationary orbit appears stationary.
One big advantage of beaming signals from geostationary orbit is that the satellite can cover a very large
part of the Earth. Signals from one satellite can cover roughly a third of the planet — and three to four
satellites would be enough to cover the entire Earth. Also, because they appear to be stationary, it is easier
to link to them.
But satellites in geostationary orbit also have a major disadvantage. The Internet is all about the
transmission of data in (nearly) real-time. However, there is a time lag — called latency — between a user
seeking data, and the server sending that data. And because data transfers cannot happen faster than the
speed of light (in reality, they take place at significantly lower speeds), the longer the distance that needs
to be covered the greater is the time lag, or latency.
In space-based networks, data requests travel from the user to the satellite and are then directed to data
centers on the ground. The results then make the same journey in the reverse direction. A transmission like
this from a satellite in geostationary orbit has a latency of about 600 milliseconds. A satellite in the lower
orbit, 200-2,000 km from the Earth’s surface, can bring the lag down to 20-30 milliseconds, roughly the
time it takes for terrestrial systems to transfer data.

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, NIT SRINAGAR 1

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Working of Satellite Internet

Satellite Internet generally relies on three primary components: a satellite, typically in geostationary orbit
(sometimes referred to as a geosynchronous Earth orbit, or GEO), a number of ground stations known as
gateways that relay Internet data to and from the satellite via radio waves (microwave), and a small antenna
at the subscriber's location, often a VSAT (very-small-aperture terminal) dish antenna with a transceiver.

Satellite
The satellite has its own set of antennas to receive communication signals from Earth and to transmit signals
to their target location. These antennas and transponders are part of the satellite's "payload", which is
designed to receive and transmit signals to and from various places on Earth.
What enables this transmission and reception in the payload transponders is a repeater subsystem (RF (radio
frequency) equipment) used to change frequencies, filter, separate, amplify, and group signals before
routing them to their destination address on Earth.
The satellite's high-gain receiving antenna passes the transmitted data to the transponder which filters,
translates, and amplifies them, then redirects them to the transmitting antenna on board. The signal is then
routed to a specific ground location through a channel known as a carrier.
Besides the payload, the other main component of a communications satellite is called the bus, which
comprises all equipment required to move the satellite into position, supply power, regulate equipment
temperatures, provide health and tracking information, and perform numerous other operational tasks.

Gateways
The Gateway—or Gateway Earth Station (its full name)—is also referred to as a ground station, teleport,
or hub. The gateway receives radio wave signals from the satellite on the last leg of the return or upstream
payload, carrying the request originating from the end-user's site.
The satellite modem at the gateway location demodulates the incoming signal from the outdoor antenna
into IP packets and sends the packets to the local network. Access server/gateways manage traffic
transported to/from the Internet. Once the initial request has been processed by the gateway's servers, sent
to and returned from the Internet, the requested information is sent back as a forward or downstream payload
to the end-user via the satellite, which directs the signal to the subscriber terminal.
Each Gateway provides the connection to the Internet backbone for the gateway beam(s) it serves. The
system of gateways comprising the satellite ground system provides all network services for satellite and
corresponding terrestrial connectivity.

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, NIT SRINAGAR 2

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Antenna dish and modem

 Outdoor unit (ODU)
At the far end of the outdoor unit is typically a small (2–3-foot, 60–90 cm diameter), reflective
dish-type radio antenna. The VSAT antenna must also have an unobstructed view of the sky to
allow for proper line-of-sight (L-O-S) to the satellite.

 Indoor unit (IDU)

The satellite modem serves as an interface between the outdoor unit and customer-provided
equipment (i.e. PC, router) and controls satellite transmission and reception. From the sending
device (computer, router, etc.) it receives an input bitstream and converts or modulates it into radio
waves, reversing that order for incoming transmissions, which is called demodulation.

Limitations
1. Latency
2. Terrestrial Blockage
3. Weather Interference
4. Sun Interference

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, NIT SRINAGAR 3

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Starlink

Starlink is a satellite internet constellation being constructed

by SpaceX providing satellite Internet access. The
constellation will consist of thousands of mass-produced
small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), working in
combination with ground transceivers. Each Starlink satellite
is compactly designed and weighs about 260kg.
The LEO extends up to 2,000 km above the Earth’s surface.
At the current time, 901 Starlink satellites are operating at
550 km above the earth’s surface in LEO.

Services:
Global broadband Internet
SpaceX intends to provide satellite internet connectivity to underserved areas of the planet,
as well as provide competitively priced service to urban areas.

Use beyond Earth

SpaceX has long-term plans to develop and deploy a version of the satellite communication
system to serve Mars.

Working:
Rather than sending internet signals through electric cables, which must be physically laid down to reach
far-flung places, satellite internet works by beaming information through the vacuum of space, where it
travels 47% faster than in the fiber-optic cable.
1. An internet signal sent from the earth is
received by one of the Starlink satellites.
2. It then communicates with the other
satellites in the network using laser lights.
3. Once the signal reaches the most ideally
located satellite, it is relayed to a ground
receiver.
4. At a given time, a Starlink satellite is
connected to four other satellites in the
mega constellation.
5. At the user end, a pizza-sized receiver and a modem are used to access the internet.

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Benefits of Starlink over other satellites and internet services:

Current satellite internet works using large spacecraft that orbit 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above a particular
spot on the Earth. But at that distance, there are generally significant time delays in sending and receiving
data. By being closer to our planet and networking together, Starlink’s satellites are meant to carry large
amounts of information rapidly to any point on Earth, even over the oceans and in extremely hard-to-reach
places where fiber-optic cables would be expensive to lay down. [3]
1. Low Latency over the traditional satellite internet.
2. More reach compared to fiber and broadband connections.

Challenges faced:
1. Space debris:
Space debris or space junk is a term for defunct human-made
objects in space—principally in Earth orbit—which no longer serve
a useful function. The first batch of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites had
at least 5% “dead” or unresponsive units that were expected by the
company to deorbit naturally and burn up in the atmosphere. Once
thousands of these satellites rise to a higher orbit, it’s reasonable to
assume that a number of them will malfunction.
2. Light pollution:
The planned large number of satellites has met with criticism from the astronomical community
because of concerns for light pollution.
Astronomers claim that the number of
visible satellites will outnumber visible
stars and that their brightness in both
optical and radio wavelengths will
severely impact scientific observations.
Because the Starlink satellites can
autonomously change their orbits,
observations cannot be scheduled to
avoid them.

Solutions used by SpaceX

1. Autonomous Collision Avoidance
Starlink satellites utilize inputs from the Department of Defense's
debris tracking system to autonomously perform maneuvers to
avoid collisions with space debris and other spacecraft. This
capability reduces human error, allowing for a more reliable
approach to collisions.
2. To prevent space debris

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Starlink is on the leading edge of on-orbit debris mitigation, meeting or exceeding all regulatory
and industry standards.
At end of life, the satellites will utilize their onboard propulsion system to deorbit over the course
of a few months. In the unlikely event the propulsion system becomes inoperable, the satellites will
burn up in Earth’s atmosphere within 1-5 years, significantly less than the hundreds or thousands
of years required at higher altitudes. [4]

3. Light pollution
To reduce the light pollution created by the satellite’s shiny part, Darksat has been created. It is a
satellite in which all of its shiny parts are coated with very black dark material. It also added vizors.
[5]
Starlink told its early internet beta testers "expect to see data speeds vary from 50Mbps to 150Mbps and
latency from 20ms to 40ms [milliseconds] over the next several months as we enhance the Starlink system.
There will also be brief periods of no connectivity at all".
The future goal of Starlink is to create a constellation of 42000 satellites around the earth.

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, NIT SRINAGAR 6

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Similar or competitive systems

 Globalstar – an operational low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation for satellite phone and low-
speed data communications
 Iridium satellite constellation – an operational constellation of LEO satellites for global satellite
phone service
 Kuiper Systems – a planned 3236 LEO satellite Internet constellation being built by an Amazon
subsidiary
 OneWeb satellite constellation – a former competitor for a LEO internet constellation, future plans
unclear after bankruptcy
 Orbcomm – an operational constellation used to provide global asset monitoring and messaging
services from its constellation of 29 LEO communications satellites orbiting at 775 km

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, NIT SRINAGAR 7

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References

[1] "Explained: Understanding space Internet," [Online]. Available:

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-understanding-space-internet-
6126279/#:~:text=Space%2Dbased%20Internet%20systems%20have,surface%2C%20directly%20a
bove%20the%20Equator..

[2] [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_Internet_access#cite_note-2.

[3] [Online]. Available: https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellites.html.

[4] [Online]. Available: https://www.starlink.com/.

[5] [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw3R-4UC4wI.

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, NIT SRINAGAR 8