The BGAN Extension Programme represents a success for Inmarsat and the Telecommunications Department of the European Space Agency.
Through ESA Telecom’s ARTES (Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems) programme, Inmarsat and subcontractors EMS SATCOM, Logica, Thrane Norway A/S, and the University of Surrey worked together on the BGAN Extension project. The final presentation of this project was given recently at ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
Inmarsat’s BGAN system provides satellite communication services to mobile users. Global coverage is achieved through the use of three Inmarsat-4 L-band GEO satellites. The BGAN – Extension (BGAN-X) programme was established in August 2003 to undertake the design, development, prototyping and validation of new classes of satellite mobile terminals that would use the BGAN baseline system as a platform for delivering services in aeronautical, maritime and land vehicular environments. The BGAN-X project also developed a Proof-of-Concept system to deliver point-to-multipoint multimedia services over BGAN.
Gene Jilg, CTO of Inmarsat stated; “In this project, European industry has shown that it is very competitive. The BGAN Extension is fundamental to Europe and at the heart of Inmarsat's strategy. It lets Inmarsat do things faster and better.”
The final presentation included presentations from all segments of the BGAN-X project. EMS SATCOM based in the UK, was responsible for the aeronautical segment.
“Our relationship with ESA-Telecom is crucial in terms of helping our company (EMS) to take the necessary risks required in order to develop cutting edge technologies,” explains Jon Holmes, director of Advanced Programs at EMS SATCOM.
Aeronautical BGAN-X products are known as SwiftBroadband (SBB) and entered commercial service in September, 2007. Improving the resilience of the air interface over oceans at high latitudes and the development of BGAN aeronautical terminals was one of the key achievements of the BGAN-X programme.
The Maritime and Land Vehicular segments were handled by Thrane &Thrane. Maritime BGAN-X is known as Fleetbroadband and entered commercial service on 22 September, 2007. It supports an extensive range of commercially available, off-the-shelf software as well as specialized user applications developed within the maritime industry. Through the BGAN-X project, the BGAN system has been upgraded to provide advanced communication services to vessels. Thrane & Thrane has developed two new user terminal Classes adapted to the maritime.
The definition of two classes of land vehicular terminals was also determined within the BGAN-X project. The larger of the two known as Class 10 saw its first manufacturer type approval in 2007. It has proven popular within government and military sectors.
“The BGAN-X project secures engineering positions and jobs in Europe,” says Hans Moller Zenth, manager within the IND Department of Thrane & Thrane. “It gives Thrane & Thrane the chance to maintain highly skilled people in this field.”
Multicast core network development for the BGAN-X project was conducted by Logica. Multicast is an efficient way of delivering one-to-many communications across an IP structure. It can offer significant satellite resource savings when distributing information to large user groups. Real time applications include netted voice, whiteboard collaboration and netmeeting-type conferencing. The BGAN-X project saw Logica concentrate on the design of the core network technology as well as development and productisation .
“Bench trials of Phase One have been successful,” says Nick Green, account manager of Satellite Communications at Logica. “We are now ready to proceed with satellite trials.”
"The relationship between Inmarsat and ESA has always been a positive one,” says Paul Febvre, BGAN-X project manager for Inmarsat. “ESA’s support through due diligence and technical evaluation is immensely valuable as a whole.”
Febvre says at that at the start of this project 16 companies were listed as subcontractors. They are now considered partners in the planned Alphasat Extension activities. Some of these partners include universities.
“You can see the importance of such a thing as BGAN,” he says. “It’s a global community sharing risks and ideas.”
Antonio Franchi, director of the Radio Network Engineering in the Product Evolution Division at Inmarsat states the developments of the new six mobile user terminal classes could not have happened so fast without the cooperation with ESA.
“ESA’s alignment with our product strategy allows us to develop and launch new products in record time,” Franchi says. “Working with ESA one step ahead of our commercial product road map facilitates an accelerated product development cycle.”
Future development of BGAN extensions continue with the BGAN Extension phase 2 project as well as future L-Band activities proposed as part of the Alphabus/Alphasat programme line or ARTES 8 element. The Alphasat programme is a major cooperation between the public and private sectors. With Alphasat, Inmarsat will be the first commercial customer for the Alphabus platform, the new European high-power telecommunications platform jointly developed by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space and initiated by a partnership between ESA and CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales).
“Alphasat is a spectacular example of cooperation between Inmarsat and ESA,” CTO Gene Jilg says.
"The BGAN-X project represents a major success of ESA’s Telecommunications programme," says Juan Rivera Castro, ESA Technical Officer for the BGAN projects. "This public-private partnership programme has allowed the development of the most advanced communication services provided by a satellite system to mobile users. The value created by this project benefits from the highly qualified industrial partners to the end-users.”
For more information and to view the presentations given at the BGAN-X Final Presentation see the links in the top right column of this page.
