Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Elon Musk tweets using SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 112 posts

Re: Elon Musk tweets using SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet

#51

Post by optimiz3 »

windsurfer wrote: post #47
jb775 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how the Starlink latency compares to the current microwave technologies used by high frequency trading firms. Any slight latency improvement is a game-changer in the HFT industry.

Distance is still a huge problem. The Starlink signal still needs to travel up to the satellites 500 KM up, and then another 500 KM back down. That should be around 2 ms (thanks user jobseeker990, corrected from previous 15ms) of added latency, so anything that is already below 4 ms of latency probably wouldn't be improved.

Would be fine with equivalency - that's a democratizing force. Will also spur more innovation in this area on behalf of HFT firms.

Re: Elon Musk tweets using SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet

#52

Post by milquetoastaf »

jniedrauer wrote: post #5

I'm really excited about this technology for selfish reasons. I love disconnecting and spending time in remote wildernesses. But paradoxically, being disconnected from technology gives me a lot of anxiety about technology. Working on devops roles over the last decade, I've almost never had a time when I can just forget about it all. Even when I'm not on call, and no matter how well I try to document things, I'm often…

Wouldn't hurt to embolden the line between work and life. It's okay to not pick up the phone sometimes.

Re: Elon Musk tweets using SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet

#53

Post by XJ6 »

JulianMorrison wrote: post #23
jb775 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how the Starlink latency compares to the current microwave technologies used by high frequency trading firms. Any slight latency improvement is a game-changer in the HFT industry.

IIRC this is how they plan to finance it.

You just made that up.

Re: Elon Musk tweets using SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet

#54

Post by mrtksn »

Tuna-Fish wrote: post #41
mrtksn wrote: post #26

How is the censorship going to work with Starlink? Twitter is heavily censored in many countries like Turkey. Other countries censor other things, be it on political, commercial or "criminal" grounds. Can someone explain a bit on these issues? Is the global internet going to be governed on US laws if Starlink becomes a thing?

No. Starlink will follow all local laws, including licensing the bandwidth they are using. They are not going to run a pirate internet network. Due to complications in US laws, this actually means that Starlink cannot directly offer service in much of the world, instead having to let a local company resell access. (Because SpaceX as a US company cannot do certain kinds of filtering without running afoul of US laws.)

How do the satellites know the precise location of the client? Wouldn't it possible to buy a subscription in one country and go use it in another country?

Re: Elon Musk tweets using SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet

#55

Post by alextingle »

windsurfer wrote: post #47
jb775 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how the Starlink latency compares to the current microwave technologies used by high frequency trading firms. Any slight latency improvement is a game-changer in the HFT industry.

Distance is still a huge problem. The Starlink signal still needs to travel up to the satellites 500 KM up, and then another 500 KM back down. That should be around 2 ms (thanks user jobseeker990, corrected from previous 15ms) of added latency, so anything that is already below 4 ms of latency probably wouldn't be improved.

Light travels 1000km in under 4ms. What else are you adding to that time?

Re: Elon Musk tweets using SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet

#57

Post by jobseeker990 »

windsurfer wrote: post #47
jb775 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how the Starlink latency compares to the current microwave technologies used by high frequency trading firms. Any slight latency improvement is a game-changer in the HFT industry.

Distance is still a huge problem. The Starlink signal still needs to travel up to the satellites 500 KM up, and then another 500 KM back down. That should be around 2 ms (thanks user jobseeker990, corrected from previous 15ms) of added latency, so anything that is already below 4 ms of latency probably wouldn't be improved.

I think your math is way off. I'm getting less than 2 ms to go 500 km.

Re: Elon Musk tweets using SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet

#58

Post by orbifold »

kbenson wrote: post #48
jb775 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how the Starlink latency compares to the current microwave technologies used by high frequency trading firms. Any slight latency improvement is a game-changer in the HFT industry.

Lower latency across the globe is likely irrelevant to people that colocate in the same data centers as the exchanges to reduce latency. Then again, maybe it's useful for arbitrage between different exchanges, where they would likely have equipment next to each exchange, and have a wide distance between them.

In case you didn’t know: there are several dedicated microwave links between Chicago and New York just for that reason.

Re: Elon Musk tweets using SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet

#59

Post by pstuart »

tpmx wrote: post #50
jayd16 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty neat. I guess they could vendor out to Google. GCP Spanner relies on reliable low ping fiber between zones so this might be a clear throughput win for them.

A high bandwidth dynamically directed laser-based mesh network of 12k-42k tiny satellites 340 km above the earth is a pretty ballsy concept to begin with. I'm curious about who came up with this idea. It's kind of brilliant.

Arthur C. Clarke, in a way.

http://lakdiva.org/clarke/1945ww/

Re: Elon Musk tweets using SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet

#60

Post by scrumbledober »

Tuna-Fish wrote: post #31
plopz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought I read somewhere that they cancelled the plans to use lasers and were going to use radio instead. But now I can't find anything about it.

They have not cancelled the plans to use lasers, but have delayed the introduction of lasers until "satellite version 2.0", whatever that means. That is, the initial constellation (my guess, the first 800 satellites) goes up without intersat links and acts as a bent pipe only. Lasers are still very much a plan for the later parts on the constellation, and the laserless satellites will eventually be replaced with ones…

minor correction, they have delayed the laser interlink for version 1.0, which should be the next launch. the first launch is considered by spacex to be version 0.9 satellites
Post reply on HN