Post on 18-Dec-2015
2COPYRIGHT 2005 SPACENET INC.FCC Satellite Forum - March 21, 2005
About Spacenet Inc.
• Founded 1981– Owned by Southern Pacific, GTE, GE– Acquired by Gilat Satellite Networks in 1998
• 300 employees, headquarters in McLean, VA
• Managed network services provider– VSAT WAN connectivity– Terrestrial and hybrid DSL/VSAT networks– Value-added application services– Network management– Residential/SOHO ISP services by satellite
• Large and established customer base– 100 enterprise customers (more than 40,000 sites)– 32,000 residential customers
3COPYRIGHT 2005 SPACENET INC.FCC Satellite Forum - March 21, 2005
Some of Our Customers
Retail Restaurant & Hospitality Oil & Gas and SCADA
Lottery & FinancialGrocery Freight & Shipping
4COPYRIGHT 2005 SPACENET INC.FCC Satellite Forum - March 21, 2005
Spacenet’s Enterprise VSAT Business
• Spacenet supports more than 40,000 enterprise VSATs
• Customers come primarily from five verticals– Retail (including gas and convenience stores)– Restaurant & hospitality– Energy/utility– Finance– Government
• Application-centric networks for businesses
• Common applications include:– Credit/debit authorization, Point of Sale polling– Multicast file/content delivery– Interactive Distance Learning– Internet/intranet, back-office (e-mail, web, file transfers)– SCADA and remote monitoring or surveillance applications
• Full-time VSAT networks and part-time networks for failover/backup or burst connectivity
• Sometimes, VSAT is primary connectivity; in other cases, it is supplementary or backup to Frame Relay or other terrestrial
5COPYRIGHT 2005 SPACENET INC.FCC Satellite Forum - March 21, 2005
Spacenet VSAT Networks
Credit Card Processor
Music Provider
Spacenet Hub
Back-Office AppsTraining Video
Corporate Communications
HQ/Data
Center
Remote Sites
SatelliteIndoor Unit
TrainingVideo
Licensed Music
Web-basedPOS
Credit Authorization
Internet/Intranet
Web-basedE-mail
Multicast Services
Back-of-House Applications
Front-of-House Applications
Offsite Application Host Facility
6COPYRIGHT 2005 SPACENET INC.FCC Satellite Forum - March 21, 2005
Why Offer Hybrid Networks?
• Terrestrial offers several advantages over VSAT for data networks…– Compelling pricing (especially in consumer networks)– Low latency (better for some applications)– Greater familiarity within the IT community
• …although VSAT still retains several important advantages– Ubiquitous availability– Multicast support– Control of the last mile
• Increasing DSL footprint, technology maturity are increasing customer demand
• Spacenet sees itself as a services provider, not just a VSAT operator
• Hybrid networks are a competitive differentiator
• Allows us to build on the customer relationship
7COPYRIGHT 2005 SPACENET INC.FCC Satellite Forum - March 21, 2005
VSAT and DSL Data Networks
COMPONENT A (DELIVERY)
AGGREGATION POINTLEC CO
REMOTE SITE
Core Router
Local Loop
DSLAMDSL Router
HUB
Edge Router
T E L C O N E T W O R KCOMPONENT B (NETWORK ACCESS)
COMPONENT A (DELIVERY)
REMOTE SITE
SatelliteIDU/ODUHub RFT,
Baseband Equipment
ISP Network
COMPONENT B (NETWORK ACCESS)
Switch
LEC CO
Router
O V E R - T H E - A I R N E T W O R K
8COPYRIGHT 2005 SPACENET INC.FCC Satellite Forum - March 21, 2005
Integrated Services Challenges
• “Thinking terrestrial”
• Choosing service mix (DSL, private lines, Frame Relay, others)
• Choosing a business model (how much infrastructure investment?)– Facilities-based providers vs. reseller/ISPs– Layer-2 vs. Layer-3 services
• Developing terrestrial know-how (VSAT is the hard part!)
• Creating a business case for where terrestrial fits into your offerings– Majority-terrestrial networks– Terrestrial gap-fill for VSAT (line of sight, building rights issues)– Terrestrial and VSAT together for different applications or failover connectivity
• Dealing with the complexities of terrestrial installations
• Determining customer needs
• Creating marketplace-competitive offerings
9COPYRIGHT 2005 SPACENET INC.FCC Satellite Forum - March 21, 2005
Spacenet Hub Facility
DSL-Connected Sites
Customer Corp Headquarters or
Data Center Dedicated Terrestrial
Backhaul (Frame Relay or
IPsec Tunnels)
VSAT-Connected Sites
Transaction Processors
Hybrid VSAT/DSL Networks
ATM Interconnect with
Facilities-Based Provider
3rd-Party Value Added Services Providers
10COPYRIGHT 2005 SPACENET INC.FCC Satellite Forum - March 21, 2005
Spacenet’s Integrated DSL Offering
• Services for franchise/SME through enterprise needs– ADSL services on the low end– SDSL/IDSL services on the high end– Dual-pipe solutions for special needs
• DSL services are routed back to the Spacenet hub for a seamless hybrid network
– Terrestrial and VSAT sites can share IP space, be managed as part of one WAN– Allows for centralized firewalling/network management just as with VSAT
• Unifying the services:– Same NOC/NMC handles trouble tickets for DSL and VSAT customers– Customers receive one bill– Orders are placed through the same fulfillment system– Live prequalifications for both terrestrial and VSAT
• There are still differences:– Terrestrial on-site maintenance doesn’t have the flexibility of VSAT offerings – Different contract terms, different AUP/usage restrictions
• Enthusiastic response from customers
11COPYRIGHT 2005 SPACENET INC.FCC Satellite Forum - March 21, 2005
Integrated Services – Moving Forward
• In markets where terrestrial is a factor, it must be addressed– Some markets will always remain VSAT-centric– When there is open competition on connectivity services, terrestrial has an
important place
• Spacenet has not seen meaningful cannibalization of its VSAT market
– Most deployments are gap-fills on VSAT networks– Opportunities for VSAT and terrestrial in primary/secondary configuration
• Some customers actually switch to VSAT once they experience the problems of large terrestrial rollout
• Success is dependent on developing the attitude of a “service provider”
– Are you a hardware-specific operator or a solutions provider?– Successfully implementing one terrestrial platform opens the door to many
other future service offerings– Things like WiMax/EVDV and others represent future threats to VSAT data
networks that will need to be addressed in time as well