| SPACEWAY provides a two-way broadband “Internet in the Sky” IP network over satellite. It utilizes on-board regenerative processing and on-board packet switching with one-hop mesh connectivity between satellite terminals in its spot beams. SPACEWAY is the next step forward in communication satellites by being the first digital communications satellite. SPACEWAY takes uplink frequencies and digitally processes them on-board the satellite and switches the IP packets to their correct destination to transmit them to the correct destination downlink spot beams. SPACEWAY also provides other advanced broadband IP networking services over satellite including support for high performance guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) needed for voice and video applications and also provides Bandwidth-On-Demand (BoD) needed for highly volatile IP traffic. The future of satellite communications is embodied in Spaceway and its capabilities with its magnitude increase in capabilities from today’s bent-pipe satellites.
This paper discusses the SPACEWAY system, its overall architecture, its network services, and its capabilities as built. It describes how the pieces of SPACEWAY are layered together to provide a complete set of end-user IP networking services. SPACEWAY has completed its system design, system deployment, and system testing for service availability in 2007. SPACEWAY implements as described in this paper the internationally approved ESTI/TIA standard called Regenerative Satellite Mesh – A (RSM-A) used for two-way single-hop regenerative mesh satellite link layer communications.
This paper further discusses how SPACEWAY can be leveraged for a low-risk DoD-grade satellite system providing communications-on-the-move (COTM), information assurance (IA), reach-back, virtual private networks (VPNs), and policy management.
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