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Elon Musk said SpaceX's multi 1000 satellite Internet service will be IP-less

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Re: Elon Musk said SpaceX's multi 1000 satellite Internet service will be IP-less

#31

IP is fairly high in the TCP/IP layer stack[1], isn't it? So it shouldn't be too surprising that a transport layer (or link layer? Not quite sure) does not use it, should it? 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_protocol_suite

IP is a network layer protocol, it connects two hosts. TCP is a transport layer protocol, it connects two processes and runs on top of a network layer such as IP. The link layer connects two links (e.g. your computer and your WiFi router), examples are Ethernet or 802.11 (even though they also incorporate management of the physical layer).

What the satellites have to deal with is pysical/link level protocol to send packets from one to another (and from and to ground stations) as well as a network level protocol to route traffic inside the SpaceX network.

Re: Elon Musk said SpaceX's multi 1000 satellite Internet service will be IP-less

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thinking at the scale of Musk's ambitions real quick, this makes a lot of sense. At Tesla: Think about every Tesla car worldwide being able to phone home with self-driving learning data. Being able to remote operate them in the 0.001% of cases where human intervention is neccessary, no matter whether in the Australian outback or the Alps (without "no network"). At SpaceX: Being able to communicate with every Mars-bou…

The antennas for this are the size of pizza boxes - which puts a question over the car connectivity. That's a lot of flat sky-facing surface to hide.

They will be to start. But think about how big the first briefcase cell phones were. They’ll shrink over time.

Re: Elon Musk said SpaceX's multi 1000 satellite Internet service will be IP-less

#33

For those of you in the know here. Is this a realistic project/enterprise he is working on? Seems both costly to deploy that many satellites and risky in the sense that you can't count on getting a lot of customers. Especially with the new super speedy 5G networks and so on.

it avoids all of the annoying issues that cartels spent a lot of time setting up on a state-by-state basis in the US (which results in limited choice). Effectively you could connect to this anywhere in the world without the approval of local (e.g. Chinese citizens could get an unfiltered internet and the only "tell" is that they have a satellite dish). That makes the potential of this reasonably neat but it will depe…

And governments not interfering with its operation.

Re: Elon Musk said SpaceX's multi 1000 satellite Internet service will be IP-less

#34
post #9

For those of you in the know here. Is this a realistic project/enterprise he is working on? Seems both costly to deploy that many satellites and risky in the sense that you can't count on getting a lot of customers. Especially with the new super speedy 5G networks and so on.

Even in the developed world, coverage of high speed wireless broadband (e.g. 3G and up) isn't complete. In the less developed world the coverage is even worse[1]. I don't know the costs to set up and run the network, but I do feel like there is a large possible customer base. [1] https://opensignal.com/reports/2016/08/global-state-of-the-m...

Well populated and tech heavy parts of the UK have spotty and unreliable 4g which is baffling to me. If Elon can deliver a low latency satellite network even just for peering it will be a big step potentially.

Re: Elon Musk said SpaceX's multi 1000 satellite Internet service will be IP-less

#35
post #17

For those of you in the know here. Is this a realistic project/enterprise he is working on? Seems both costly to deploy that many satellites and risky in the sense that you can't count on getting a lot of customers. Especially with the new super speedy 5G networks and so on.

Hell of a lot of places without 5G, or any , mobile internet. Don't forget aviation and to a lesser extent maritime either. People love their onboard wifi. Owning the launch platform could mean that he's able to significantly undercut current players, although funnily enough soon-to-be competitor Iridium recently launched a whole bunch of new satellites using SpaceX. Good position to be in when your competitors are d…

StarLink will be mostly in LEO, so latency will be competitive with terrestrial services.

Re: Elon Musk said SpaceX's multi 1000 satellite Internet service will be IP-less

#38

For those of you in the know here. Is this a realistic project/enterprise he is working on? Seems both costly to deploy that many satellites and risky in the sense that you can't count on getting a lot of customers. Especially with the new super speedy 5G networks and so on.

it avoids all of the annoying issues that cartels spent a lot of time setting up on a state-by-state basis in the US (which results in limited choice). Effectively you could connect to this anywhere in the world without the approval of local (e.g. Chinese citizens could get an unfiltered internet and the only "tell" is that they have a satellite dish). That makes the potential of this reasonably neat but it will depe…

The equipment will no doubt be illegal to own in places like China. So it would get smuggled in or produced locally and sold on the black market. So far so good. But even if you install it surreptitiously I am pretty sure it will not be a LPI signal. So the government has a fleet of vans driving around sniffing for the spurious emissions and away you go to the gulag.

Re: Elon Musk said SpaceX's multi 1000 satellite Internet service will be IP-less

#39
I am excited for any option that would allow me to actually choose my provider as a consumer, rather than rely on embedded infrastructure. This is super exciting for that reason and many others (potential breaking national control of a global connection, for one) and I can’t wait to see how it progresses.

Re: Elon Musk said SpaceX's multi 1000 satellite Internet service will be IP-less

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thinking at the scale of Musk's ambitions real quick, this makes a lot of sense. At Tesla: Think about every Tesla car worldwide being able to phone home with self-driving learning data. Being able to remote operate them in the 0.001% of cases where human intervention is neccessary, no matter whether in the Australian outback or the Alps (without "no network"). At SpaceX: Being able to communicate with every Mars-bou…

The antennas for this are the size of pizza boxes - which puts a question over the car connectivity. That's a lot of flat sky-facing surface to hide.

Putting it on the roof (or the hood) in a color that matches the car would work well enough.
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