Satellite Networks

With latencies of at least half a second and high bit error rates caused by the 22,000 mile journey from ground to satellite and back, satellite users are extremely aware that latency and loss often have a bigger impact on application performance than bandwidth.  Applications that aren’t specifically tested and optimized to run over satellite networks usually don’t work well.
Testing is therefore critical, but here, too, satellite users have unique challenges.  Satellite time is expensive, conditions can vary from moment to moment, and what-if scenarios such as adding bandwidth are often impossible to validate beforehand.
The founders of Apposite started in the satellite world, making WAN acceleration products to overcome the extreme latency and loss of satellite networks, and eventually came to realize that before people could optimize their satellite links, they needed a way to simulate the satellite network to test their applications.  Thus was born Apposite.  Since then, Apposite has remained active in the satellite community, and counts many satellite operators, equipment vendors, and users among its most loyal customers.
This month’s Satellite Executive Briefing features an article from DC Palter of Apposite Technologies, discussing how satellite latency and bit errors affect application performance and of course, how a WAN emulator can be used to test application performance over satellite.  The article can be read at:  http://www.satellitemarkets.com/pdf2014/july-aug14.pdf