A Multi-Dimensional Broadband Network or Is This Just Pie in the-Sky?

[Added 5/17/20: The above video was modified from the original to include an additional animation of satellite-to-satellite communications via lasers, as described below.]

Could Starlink’s launch later this year signal the creation of a new Internet?¹ But, before we get there, the limiting factor for Starlink and its competitors might be the cost of the “pizza-box” sized terminal to communicate to the satellite constellation, according to CableLabs’ Principal Strategist (5G/Wireless), Shahed Mazumder.²  Could Elon Musk’s other company, Tesla, be part of the solution to drive down the cost of these terminals and help create a new wireless network that serves both rural and urban areas?

The Truly Mobile Radio #

That is, could Tesla integrate Starlink satellite terminals into their vehicles, effectively reducing the cost of the equipment, as compared to stand-alone terminals? It is conceivable that the antennas could be integrated into the body of the vehicle (pointed to the heavens, of course). The radio electronics would have to be added to the vehicles, but some of the signal processing might be performed with existing computational power.

With a direct Starlink connection, Tesla would also no longer need telecom carriers for connectivity to their vehicles. This vertical integration would represent cost savings for the Palo Alto-based (at least for now) energy, mobility, (insurance and telecom?) company (see this interview with Princeton’s Dr. Kornhauser).

Real-time connectivity appears to be important to Tesla as a job page on their web site indicates that real-time connectivity is part of their Autopilot feature,

“Our networks learn from the most complicated and diverse scenarios in the world, iteratively sourced from our fleet of nearly 1M vehicles in real time.”

From a revenue perspective, this would allow Tesla to add another tier of broadband service to its existing offerings (which are basic and $9.95 per month). That is, they could conceivably offer a price-competitive home/mobile Internet service in rural and urban areas, to everyone who purchases a new Tesla product.

Where it gets interesting is the earthbound vehicles would serve as part of a land-based mesh network. In this scenario, the vehicles would double as base stations communicating both to other vehicles, in a peer-to-peer configuration, as well as directly to the satellite network. They would still serve as gateways to consumer devices. Of course, there is no reason these radios could not be included as part of a Tesla solar installation (e.g. a pizza-box antenna located next to the solar array).³

Another Communications Plane #

Could this lead to a future layer, which would consist of Starlink receivers onboard air taxis? The above video speculates that Tesla could conceivably supply the air taxis (although that is highly doubtful, given Elon Musk’s view of the efficiency, noise, and the perceived safety of that form of transportation).

Starlink could provide Internet connectivity to the many companies that aim to provide low-cost and ubiquitous regional air transportation.  Reliable and low-cost Internet connectivity for the passengers is probably going to be a baseline feature for air taxi services and this could be a sizable new market for a company like Starlink.

In turn, these Starlink-equipped aircraft could serve as relays both to the satellites as well as to earthbound vehicles. Ridiculous as that may sound, the Air Force is looking at such an approach for ad-hoc wireless networks in conflict zones. Starlink already has a $28 million contract with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to test space-to-aircraft communications. And late last year Starlink demonstrated data throughput of 610 Mbs to a C-12 twin-engine turboprop aircraft.

The above video is pie in the sky speculation about the path Starlink could follow. What is clear is that, with 422 satellites already in the sky, they are well on their way to providing alternative broadband service beginning in 2020.

Footnotes #

¹Technically speaking Starlink would be an intranet, but from a user standpoint, it would feel like the Internet. In addition to the satellite to ground transmission via Ku (12 to 18 GHz), Ka (26.5 to 40 GHz), and V (40 to 75 GHz) bands, Starlink will use laser links via free-space optics creating a mesh network between satellites. Starlink is reportedly using a peer-to-peer protocol that, according to an Elon Musk Tweet, “will be simpler than IPv6 and have tiny packet overhead.” Implicit in this statement is that the Starlink radios will also serve as a bridge between its Intranet and the IPv4 and IPv6 protocols of the World Wide Web.

² In a February 2020 interview at the NCTC WEC conference, Mazumder suggested the cost of the terminals could be between $2,000 to $5,000 per unit at launch. Before declaring bankruptcy in late March. OneWeb, a SpaceX competitor, indicated to SpaceNews that terminals delivering community WiFi would cost between $1,000 to $1,500. In that same article, OneWeb suggested an aspirational goal of $150,000 for an airborne radio terminal, which they estimated to be half the cost of current airborne Internet radios [7/4/21 Update – OneWeb was rescued from bankruptcy and now has 254 satellites in the sky and is planning ISP backhaul services].

Musk suggested in a 2015 speech that the volume cost of the SpaceX/Starlink terminals will ultimately be between $100 to $300.

³ It is assumed that existing Tesla vehicles would need retrofitting while future models would have the antennas and radio hardware included as part of the design, Further, a land-based, peer-to-peer network would be similar in concept to Facebook’s Terragraph initiative.