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Belgacom and Newtec, both from Belgium, are responsible for completing the ESA Telecom funded project. The pair saw that the high cost of hubs prevented many ISP's from offering broadband internet over satellite, a serious problem in bridging the Digital Divide. Their solution was to create a shared hub using the DVB-RCS standard which would reach end users who are unable to access terrestrial broadband infrastructure. |
Aimed exclusively at ISP's, the main goal of the project was to develop a platform that can help deliver advanced IP based services to multiple service providers. All the while ensuring that these service providers keep the ability to define and deliver a service to their customers with minimal effort and cost efficiency.
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Belgacom has an extensive list of value added services on offer. Not only will customers receive managed capacity on the Eutelsat AB 3, but also access to the Newtec shared hub. The platform supports a variety of protocols. Several profiles are also being offered with download rates varying from 2.048 to 256 kbps and upload rates from 64 to 512 kbps. The ISP's can then sell these profiles to their customers as part of a complete package. |
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Of special interest is Belgacom's own approach to uniqueness. They are offering ISP's the one thing they never had before: control. For the first time they can manage their own end-user profiles. To achieve this two new Newtec developed management tools are used. The first is called CCMT (Customer Configuration Management Tool) and allows management of the terminal. The second is known as PMT (Performance Monitoring Tool) and is tasked with the responsibility of monitoring traffic. |
The DVB-RCS terminals being supplied by Newtec come in dish sizes as low as 75 cm. A POP router has been included which is used for TCP acceleration and prefetching.
According to Stein Peeters, the Belgacom Project Manager, "We learned a lot during the Terminal Deployment, especially the importance of solid documentation. If you want the ISPs to be the first line help-desk for their customers then they need to feel that they can handle any problem that is going to come up. In the future we're planning to upgrade the platform and prepare more tests for potential customers, and of course continue with our sales effort."
To learn more about this ESA Telecom funded project click on the link on the right-side of this page.
