North Canada Expedition puts Nera BGAN to the test
A Nera WorldPro 1000 BGAN terminal and a Nera WorldSet ISDN satellite handset were tested by 20 strong expedition team near the Polar Circle.
Nera WorldPro And BGAN at Polar Circle
The expedition «Voyageurs des Glaces 2006» took place in North Canada, in the region of Nunavut just above polar circle, and lasted from 27 April – 10 May.
The team of 20 people, including an experienced polar explorer, 6 students, an engineer from Astrium acting as a technical responsible, a doctor, and Inuit people for communications and logistics. A television team was also present.
Valuable user feedback
A Nera WorldPro 1000 BGAN terminal and Nera WorldSet ISDN handset were used daily for several applications:
Voice communication using the Nera WorldSet handset; File Transfer by FTP: pictures of the day, scientific results, technical Q&As; Video-conferencing with Cité de l’Espace (museum in Toulouse dedicated to space) using Skype for video and the telephone handset for its good voice quality and robustness.
The team reported the following user feedback:
Terminal installation and connection “- The terminal was used in split mode, with a 10m cable between antenna part and interface unit.
- GPS acquisition was slightly long on the day of arrival (typically 15 minutes), then no longer required during the trip, the terminal storing the latest position.
- Terminal pointing was performed based on the sound emitted in order to find the optimum position, elevation and azimuth. This was quite efficient (usually done in less than 30 s), thanks also to the large beam-width which has made satellite pointing easier. Elevation had been pre-calculated (16°), no compass has been necessary – it would not have worked anyway in these northern regions – the sun position giving a rough estimate of the azimuth.
- Signal level was subsequently checked with the handset and was typically between 98/100 and 100/100. This good performance compared to urban zones was explained by the absence of external interferers and reflecting sources.
- PC, which was booted in parallel, was then connected to the terminal with the USB cable.
- The BGAN LaunchPad was then started and connected to the network, usually at 230 kbps.
Terminal operation feedback
- A few terminal disconnections had been observed, mostly due to someone passing in front of antenna
- Globally the service and applications have been very appreciated by the users.
- FTP was running functionally. Pictures had been previously resized to limit file size.
- Access to web pages was reasonably correct, although some pages took time to complete download compared to users familiar with ADSL connections.
- Skype v2.0 was using approx. 100 kbps of the bandwidth using its proprietary video codecs, with a medium definition and good frame rate.
- Terminal antenna was very tolerant to small and temporary moves +/- 15° around nominal pointing. Moreover, a very impressive 360° round turn has been performed without any disconnection or any voice/ data losses, which puzzled most of the engineers observing the scene. This robustness is presumably attributed to the transmission buffers of the terminal, keeping data until it can be transmitted.
- Terminal batteries, when fully charged, allowed for at least 20 minutes of conversation and video conferencing (PC batteries were the first to stop after 20 minutes), at temperatures above -20 °C.”