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Starlink's laser system is beaming 42 petabytes of data per day

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Re: Starlink's laser system is beaming 42 petabytes of data per day

#261

Post by jgalt212 »

mrb wrote: post #225

So that is "432 Mbit/s per laser, and 9000 lasers total". I don't know you guys but I find that statement much more relatable than "42 PB/day". Interestingly, they also say each laser "can sustain a 100Gbps connection per link" (although another part of the article even claims 200 Gbit/s). That means each laser is grossly underused on average, at 0.432% of its maximum capacity. Which makes sense since 100 Gbit/s is p…

> And with 2.3M customers, that's an average 1.7 Mbit/s per customer, or 550 GB per customer per month, which is kinda high. The average American internet user probably consumes less than 100 GB/month.

Dead internet theory (alive and well!)

Re: Starlink's laser system is beaming 42 petabytes of data per day

#262

Post by canadianfella »

_0ffh wrote: post #200
ble wrote: post #5

My understanding of the state of the art of inter-satellite optical links is that they have only been used between satellites that are basically in the same orbital plane and in more or less the same orbit. That is, the angle from one satellite to the other changes very very slowly, so that the optics don't have to do much tracking -- and consequently satellites can only form an optical link with other satellites tha…

Nah, I once did a job for a guy and they did LEO-GEO distances alright iirc and LEO-Earth in the mid-end 2000s, which has to deal with some pretty high angular velocities, if not as potentially high as LEO-LEO when they don't happen to be relatively nicely aligned. (In case that sounds strange, the guy was one of the two owners of a small, very specialized company that in turn was subcontracted by a rather bigger com…

[dead]

Re: Starlink's laser system is beaming 42 petabytes of data per day

#263

Post by calvinmorrison »

yosito wrote: post #260
mrb wrote: post #225

So that is "432 Mbit/s per laser, and 9000 lasers total". I don't know you guys but I find that statement much more relatable than "42 PB/day". Interestingly, they also say each laser "can sustain a 100Gbps connection per link" (although another part of the article even claims 200 Gbit/s). That means each laser is grossly underused on average, at 0.432% of its maximum capacity. Which makes sense since 100 Gbit/s is p…

I think the average Instagram or TikTok user must be using more than 100GB/month. And if you count YouTube and Netflix, it's probably more than that.

Is resolution going to peak? Like speeding on a highway are there diminishing returns? On the other hand, bandwidth availability seems to also drive demand...

Re: Starlink's laser system is beaming 42 petabytes of data per day

#264

Post by ajross »

lillecarl wrote: post #255
garciasn wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix uses 3-7GB an hour. The average person is spending 4-5hrs a day watching TV. I’d say most are above 100GB/month. But that’s me.

Yep, but that data originates from the providers network and never leave the providers network, so they probably don't count it towards your usage the same way. I don't think that breaks net neutrality either, which the FCC seems to be reimplementing Edit: see https://openconnect.netflix.com/en/

They absolutely count it the same way. Comcast just gives me a number for bytes used, with a limit of (IIRC) 1.2TB above which they start metering. Our family of four comes dances around hitting that basically every month. The biggest consumer actually isn't video, is my teenage gamer's propensity for huge game downloads (also giant mod packs that then break his setup and force reinstall of the original content).

I think a few hundred GB for a typical cord-cut household is about right.

Re: Starlink's laser system is beaming 42 petabytes of data per day

#265

Post by StanislavPetrov »

mrb wrote: post #225

So that is "432 Mbit/s per laser, and 9000 lasers total". I don't know you guys but I find that statement much more relatable than "42 PB/day". Interestingly, they also say each laser "can sustain a 100Gbps connection per link" (although another part of the article even claims 200 Gbit/s). That means each laser is grossly underused on average, at 0.432% of its maximum capacity. Which makes sense since 100 Gbit/s is p…

"Customer" may refer to households, not individuals, in which case it could be numerous internet users soaking up data per customer.

Re: Starlink's laser system is beaming 42 petabytes of data per day

#267

Post by oh_sigh »

ianburrell wrote: post #192
oh_sigh wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible for starlink to beat radio, because radio can't always go straight to the target. If I wanted a radio link from NY->Tokyo, what would that path look like?

It would look like the HF radio bouncing off the ionosphere. I have contacted someone in Japan from Oregon. The downside of HF is that the bandwidth is low with 30MHz across the entire band. There was company recently wanting to do high-frequency trading on HF because of the quickest path.

I'm curious how much the curved route affects the effective speed of communication with skywaves. You also have many situations where communication becomes impossible due to space weather or other atmospheric phenomena.

Re: Starlink's laser system is beaming 42 petabytes of data per day

#268

Post by tw04 »

calvinmorrison wrote: post #263
yosito wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the average Instagram or TikTok user must be using more than 100GB/month. And if you count YouTube and Netflix, it's probably more than that.

Is resolution going to peak? Like speeding on a highway are there diminishing returns? On the other hand, bandwidth availability seems to also drive demand...

> Is resolution going to peak?

It should. At some point you are beyond any difference a human eye can detect on a tv or monitor you’re sitting less than 10ft away from.

It probably won’t though because capitalism means there has to be a reason to sell you a new widget and 3D was an utter failure.

Re: Starlink's laser system is beaming 42 petabytes of data per day

#269

Post by schiffern »

mrb wrote: post #225

So that is "432 Mbit/s per laser, and 9000 lasers total". I don't know you guys but I find that statement much more relatable than "42 PB/day". Interestingly, they also say each laser "can sustain a 100Gbps connection per link" (although another part of the article even claims 200 Gbit/s). That means each laser is grossly underused on average, at 0.432% of its maximum capacity. Which makes sense since 100 Gbit/s is p…

>these laser links are used in bursts and the link stays established only for a few tens of seconds or minutes, until the satellites move away

The way Starlink satellites are in orbit, the same satellites will remain "ahead" and "behind" you in the orbital plane. Those laser links (specifically!) will remain relatively persistent. This arrangement is similar to Iridium FYI.

FTA: "in some cases, the links can also be maintained for weeks at a time"

Re: Starlink's laser system is beaming 42 petabytes of data per day

#270

Post by gleenn »

mrb wrote: post #225

So that is "432 Mbit/s per laser, and 9000 lasers total". I don't know you guys but I find that statement much more relatable than "42 PB/day". Interestingly, they also say each laser "can sustain a 100Gbps connection per link" (although another part of the article even claims 200 Gbit/s). That means each laser is grossly underused on average, at 0.432% of its maximum capacity. Which makes sense since 100 Gbit/s is p…

Just because they seem grossly underused, there are probably plenty of other non-ideal constraints like power usage for instance.
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