Using ground relays with Starlink

Mark Handley · 506.1K views · 2019-12-21 · 10:15

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Overview

Mark Handley of UCL explains, with simulation visualizations, how early Starlink satellites without inter-satellite links could still give low-latency wide-area communication by hopping via ground relays. He shows it can beat fibre on many long paths.

On Hacker News

Cited in Starlink latency debates as a clear visual analysis showing sub-100ms latency is plausible even without inter-satellite links.

Recommended by 5 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2020–2020

Topics

Networking & internet infrastructure Space exploration & spaceflight

What people said

thamer · 2020-10 · Strong recommendation
I would highly recommend the video linked from this article: [VIDEO] It's a simulation of the various ways in which the Starlink network could be arranged to route between satellites and ground stations; very detailed and super interesting.
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sneak · 2020-06 · Strong recommendation
You don't need inter-satellite links for low latency, as Mark Handley has elegantly pointed out in his incredible video. I don't think internet access will amount to even 50% of the revenue of Starlink. [VIDEO]
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gadders · 2020-06 · Recommendation
This [1] is a good youtube explanation of how a hybrid between Starlink and ground stations could still improve connectivity: [1] [VIDEO]
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Sources

Video by Mark Handley, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

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