Tag: VIASAT

Viasat: Communications-on-the-Move, Mobile Satellite Broadband, No Matter Where You Are

Posted on by Mathew Pruitt

If you are in the military tactical communications systems business, you’ve seen broadband “Communications-on-the-Move” (COTM) promised by many satellite terminal vendors.  Many of those vendors do not tell you that their ability to provide said services depends on tenuous lashups with satellite companies, exorbitant bandwidth costs, and dead spots in your required area of coverage.  I’ve planned missions for and used many satellite terminals over my active duty years, but only one mobile broadband satellite solutions provider has delivered consistently:  Viasat.  Their success comes from their end-to-end integration capabilities, including satellite, terminal, and managed services.

 

Viasat has built and launched a high capacity, commercial Ka-band satellite constellation that is still growing.  In 2022 Viasat-3 will launch.  Once fully completed, Viasat will be able to provide complete global connectivity and provide high capacity satellite WiFi anywhere at “60 times more affordable” and “15 times more capacity than DoD satellites”. (https://www.viasat.com/products/government-high-capacity-satellites).

 

Viasat has been the lead satellite modem developer for over a decade.  Their modems are the de facto DoD-standard.  You can tailor your terminal for EBEM, LinkwayS2, or CBM-400 modems, with CBM-400 providing quad-band (X, C, Ka, Ku) access, diverse network topologies (including full mesh), and the most bandwidth (up to 400 Mbps (waveform dependent)).  Viasat offers several preconfigured satellite terminals for air, land, and maritime uses, but you can tailor your terminal to your specific needs.

 

Along with the satellite modem development, Viasat has been a leader in communications security equipment development and communications protocol development.  For example, the NSA Type 1 KG-255X HAIPE Inline Encryptor has enabled faster network speeds (2Gbps) for secure networks up to TS/SCI.  It can operate in Layer 3 HAIPE mode to maintain interoperability with their older, but still widely used, KG-250X, or as a VLAN/Ethernet tunneling on Layer 2.

 

Finally, there are the various services they provide.  You can choose to run your own network and only call for training, technical support, or repair/warranty support.  In this complex communication environment, with rapid deployments, using Network Operations and Management services from Viasat on a private IP network is a better choice.  Viasat’s Network Operations and Management services can provide:

 

  • Performance Monitoring and Fault Resolution
  • Traffic Management and Beam Optimization
  • Provisioning, Commissioning, and Configuration Management

 

Viasat’s ability to provide satellite broadband communications on the move is based on their end-to-end integration of the entire communications and services path, as I’ve briefly outlined.  With highly talented, expert satellite, communications, and cybersecurity personnel, Viasat is a winning option as your tactical network provider.  If you would like to explore that option, contact us at Quantico Tactical.

Rapid Network Implementation

Posted on by Mathew Pruitt

If there is one thing this pandemic has driven home is that communications capacity planning for an emergency is better done before the need hits.  It’s also better if that plan is exercised periodically to remind ourselves of all the myriad details our information technology and cybersecurity personnel deal with every day to keep us securely connected.  The news feeds are full of the Herculean efforts by major telecommunications companies, software and collaboration services companies, DOD and Federal Agencies, and small businesses to figure out how to turn themselves into nearly 100% teleworking organizations.  Then there are the hospitals and DOD Defense Support to Civil Authorities support missions that suddenly find the need to extend networks to external locations to provide point of care solutions to those locations.  Notwithstanding the growing pains, bandwidth throttling, cybersecurity issues, and successful hacks, like all networks, after some time to “burn in,” things are working.  Now is the time for the IT, Cyber, and Comm folks to grab their operations officers and logistics officers, get a cup of coffee, gather around virtual conference table and write the after action reports.  These should become the lessons learned and the critical purchases/current year deficiency priorities.  What could have been done, done better, or not done at all, to make rapid network expansion easier and secure?  What did your organization need to buy, lease, or subscribe to rapidly to get operational quickly?  Would you choose different solutions now?  Here are some solutions to consider:

 

4G Mobile Broadband Kits (MBKs) were a clear winner for the rapid response deployed capability for COVID response.  Major telecommunications and cellular providers made it easy to get them by adding the MBKs to a subscriber’s bill and delivering them to their customers.  These MBKs are configurable, but generally come in hardened, hand-carry Pelican cases, have configurable firewall, Virtual Private Network and other network capabilities; have 2 GB LAN/WAN port, are battery powered for 4-8 hours, and provide WiFi access for 1-50 users.  These MBKs are widely used throughout US Government Agencies, Military, and Law Enforcement particularly during disaster response.  4K Solutions is the leading provider of MBKs and their products are listed on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s approved products list.

 

RIVA Network’s NanoSat mobile phone network kit is another option and one that will work in areas where there is no public infrastructure to tie into.  RIVA Network’s NanoSat not only comes with the cellular and satellite transmitters, network, battery-backup, and deployable case like the MBKs, RIVA Networks is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) with a Network Operations Center connected to the Global Roaming Alliance.  They can route calls and traffic from anywhere to one’s phone.  One can keep the same phone number no matter where deployed in the world.  It works with all commercial satellite systems, and the cell sites are available in GSM, CDMA, 3G, 4G LTE and WiMax.  It is a complete mobile solution for all mobile devices anywhere one needs to be.

 

If satellite access is the driving factor, Viasat’s AN/TSC-241 Multi-Mission Terminal (MMT), while a larger, but still transportable, solution, delivers IP-based voice, video, and data networks over X-, Ku-, commercial Ka-, and military Ka- bands, including operation with Viasat’s high-capacity network.  A simple change of the feed arm allows allows the terminal to access the specific satellite band.   Combined with a something like PacStar’s 400 Series or Smart Gateway capabilities to implement the IP network or wireless network and one can have a command operations center up and running within 30 minutes (preconfigured, of course, ahead of time).

 

The options available for communications and connectivity are vast beyond these three examples and the decision is an important one.  A number of factors, other than costs, should go into the decision of what an organization buys/leases to be ready for an emergency. I learned these planning factors as ‘DOTMLPF’:  Doctrine, Organization, Training, Material, Leadership, Personnel, and Facilities.  Without getting into full details of a DOTMLPF planning process, it provides a mechanism to think through other employment considerations, including costs, and it is a process I would advise all to apply to any significant purchase or procurement to ensure that the solution meets requirements.  At Quantico Tactical, we work with thousands of great vendors with products that can fit your needs, including those previously discussed.  We can help you find solutions that will best fit your organization’s ability to employ it.