24 February 2009

Horizon Satellite Solutions,  has selected Newtec's satellite solution capable of maintaining the service of satellite links at all times, and delivering increased IP throughput.

Horizon has a link with an uplink in Europe, connecting to several sites in the Middle East. For a certain site, receiving conditions were not optimal because the site was on the edge of the satellite footprint. Further, the link experienced a daily variation of 3dB peak-to-peak in C/N due to interference from adjacent carrier inter-modulation and antenna tracking errors.

Horizon Satellite opted to upgrade its existing Newtec equipment. The upgrade consisted in adding a redundant Newtec Controller, Traffic Shaper and IP Encapsulator to the hub and to upgrade the modems of the remote stations.

After the upgrade, the link remained up at all times, even during degraded link conditions. In addition to this, Horizon was able to utilize a higher modulation order on its links, increasing from 16APSK 2/3 to 16APSK 5/6. This meant a throughput gain of 74 Mbps to 92 Mbps, on average an increase of 25 %.

Subair Mullappally, Operations Director at Horizon said: “We not only benefit from an increased throughput, but the down-time of Horizon’s links has been completely removed, delivering and “always-on” service level to our customers at all times.”