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Businesses with operations offshore, such as those in the energy and cruise industries, must maintain reliable communications while moving rigs or ships from one region of the world to another. Satellite communications have become the most viable option, but they also face unique communication challenges. Often, vessels travel in and out of satellite’s ranges, and because of this, they must have the ability to connect to multiple satellites in order to keep continuous communications.
Connecting to satellite networks requires the remote hardware on the vessel be setup to communicate with the equipment in the location where the satellite signal lands and connects to the internet. Several methods have been developed over the years to accomplish this connection, but settings must be changed as the customer travels the globe. With the introduction of Automatic Beam Switching (ABS), equipment settings could be changed as the networks are traversed. Though the technology has developed over the years, the majority of these systems allow satellite networks to be preprogrammed into the ABS unit, allowing the system to automatically switch to satellites it knows to be within view.
One challenge facing the ABS system was that it lacked intelligence related to the switch beyond knowing where it was located and which satellites were in view. With this legacy ABS system, if rain fade caused a Ka-band link to go down, the system may not recognize what happened and would try to switch to another Ka-band beam.
Thankfully, this technology was upgraded by Harris CapRock. The next generations of ABS systems from Harris CapRock incorporate intelligence to understand and predict known satellite communication challenges including rain fade, blockage and general transition between satellite beams. These systems require intelligence to be built into the software to combat the challenges of managing satellite networks.
As fleets are supported with satellite networks, further complexity is added when considering the management of available capacity on the network. This is where legacy ABS systems suffer as they may be able to switch to another satellite but are unaware of whether the satellite is at full capacity or not. With Harris CapRock’s built-in network intelligence, ABS solutions select networks with available capacity to switch to so a customer has full access to their bandwidth with minimal switching interruptions.
As the technology progresses, it enables improvements in the overall operation of satellite networks to provide a seamless solution to those using satellite communications today. Through hardware and software, it is possible to transition satellite networks and avoid common challenges to communications that have historically caused interruptions. The next generation of Harris CapRock’s ABS solutions incorporates more intelligence into the system than previously available, allowing it to make intelligent decisions without manual interaction. This automation has the added benefit of providing constant connectivity for a seamless experience to the customer, allowing vessel operators almost anywhere in the world the luxury of not having to lift a finger to maintain satellite communication.
