ViaSat Demonstrates Full Mesh MF-TDMA DAMA Networking Over WGS

Dec. 19, 2013

ViaSat Inc. has successfully demonstrated full-mesh multi spot beam (Fan In/Fan Out) operations over the government-owned WGS-1 satellite with LinkWay_S2 equipped earth terminals configured with the WIN-T software baseline. This demonstration was a collaboration between the U.S. Army and ViaSat aimed at improving the efficiency of multi spot beam operations over the Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) constellation.  

LinkWay_S2 equipped earth terminals in the Guam, Hawaii, and West Coast WGS beams participated in the week long demonstration. Using a single TDMA carrier, full-mesh connectivity was demonstrated between all traffic terminals, both interbeam (e.g., Hawaii-to-Guam, Hawaii-to-Roberts, etc.) and intrabeam (e.g., Hawaii-to-Hawaii, Roberts-to-Roberts, etc.). To further demonstrate the flexibility of the LinkWay_S2 system, it set up the same connections using multiple TDMA carriers configured in the same bandwidth segment on WGS-1. The system is scalable from one TDMA carrier to multiple contiguous cross-beam TDMA carriers and multiple non-contiguous in-beam carriers.

"The LinkWay system has been a satellite networking workhorse for U.S. defense over the past 10 years and this demonstration illustrates how quickly ViaSat commercial systems can be adapted for government use," said Bill Connelly, general manager, ViaSat Tactical Satcom Networks. "As soon as we were provided the operational scenarios, we were able to adjust configuration parameters to meet the requirements that are unique to WGS operations. And we did it without any new software or software modifications."