Inmarsat Selects iDirect for Global Xpress(TM)

LONDON, February 18, 2011. Inmarsat  announced today that  they have awarded  US$60m contract to iDirect to provide the ground network infrastructure and core module technology for the satellite terminals for their Ka-band Global Xpress service....more>

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Evolution modem | Automatic Beam Switching ABS | Virtual Network Operator VNO | Adaptive Coding Modulation ACM |
The Evolution modem is the latest from iDirect including the DVB-S2 and ACM in a lower cost modem. This debuted with the X3 modem in 2008 and the current X5 modem is backward compatible with the iNFINTY modems. The backward compatibility is important when upgrading large fleets.
iDirect were the first to develop ABS and most antenna manufacturers have made their terminals compatible with the iDirect ABS system.

ABS allows the remote modems to sense, via iDirect's OpenAMIP protocol with the antenna, when it is necessary to switch to another satellite.  The modem then sets the antenna parameters and commands the antenna to target and track the new satellite, without any intervention from the onboard personnel.

With this feature, satellite operators can seamlessly join together several regional beams into contiguous, multi region coverage areas.

With iDirect/s Global Network Management System GNMS, the IP addressing scheme can be maintained, making the transition completely transparent to the user.
The flexibility of the iDirect hub allows operators to buy capacity on a hub card from a Host Network Operator.  This allows smaller operators to offer extremely competative services without the huge upfront investment and grow their capacity as business develops.

This VNO model also facilitates providing services in remote ocean regions uplinked to a different satellite from a different continent.
Due to the effect of rain fade, normal satellite link budgets need to be sized with sufficient power to allow for the worst conditions. This is quite a costly operation as the operator is paying for bandwidth that is being used only when it rains at the teleport or at the remote vessel.

With Adaptive Coding Modulation the modem dynamically changes the modulation scheme to a more robust FEC, as the weather deteriorates, allowing communications to continue in the worst conditions, albeit at a lower rate.

For customers that cannot tollerate reduced speed, iDirect has a GQ0S that allows setting of a Extended Information Rate(EIR) that guarantees throughput at a certain level in the worst conditions, at a fee. Resources are taken from lower priced links, that are not being disadvantaged by the weather at that time, to boost the premium link to the required level.

ACM results in a substantial savings of bandwidth and money for the network operator and the customer while maintaining quality links.