Bentley Walker, Skylogic and Hughes are installing a Hughes DVB-S2 HX VSAT hub  at Skylogic teleport, Turin.  This new HughesNet VSAT hub has DVB-S2.

Features include:
.  1 Msps return links (with up to 2 Msps later)
.  Enhanced Quality of Service (QoS)
.  Guaranteed bit rate services – Constant Bit Rate (CBR) Service, Adaptive return links, Constant Bit Rate Service, Minimum and Maximum Committed Information Rate (CIR) Service

Does anyone know if there are any other Hughes HX VSAT hubs already working elsewhere ?

It sounds to me as though they have caught up with ViaSat LinkStar regarding the DVB-S2.  The traffic management facilites sound attractive.

Best regards, Eric.

iDirects DVB-S2 platforms are scheduled for release in Dec07 (Evolution platforms/Fusion router). I have seen the spreads, they are very impressive.

Should make for an interesting market.

This new Hughes HX VSAT hub system is cool.  I've been finding out more about it today.  

On the outlink the modulation of the DVB-S2 carrier and varies all the time from QPSK to 8-PSK with assorted FEC rates to suit the link margins at each individual remote VSAT terminal, this giving an increase in bit rate in clear sky conditions.

There is a similar feedback loop relating to the inbound (return link) carriers so the remotes each transmit with variable modulation and coding plus uplink power control.

The purpose of all this is to get more out of the satellite capacity in clear sky conditions (which apply for much of the time) and thus reduce costs.  Great stuff.

Read more about the technical aspects of the new HX50 VSAT terminal plus a nice picture of the new HX50 satellite modem.  There will be an HX100 model offering higher return link transmit burst symbol rate up to 2 Msps.
wxw
Best regards, Eric.

Hughes is a little ahead of iDirect with regards to adaptive coding and modulations (closing in on the shannon limit).   iDirect will not be ready DVBS2 VCM/ACM until late this year.

I do like the idea of having a remote that can adapt to environmental (fade) conditions even if means a reduction in throughput.  Beats the heck of of breaking the link entirely.  

iDirects DVBS2 Fusion routers should run all the way up to 32APSK and use VCM/ACM and LDPCC for inner coding.  I am somewhat biased towards iDirect proprietary because of their upstream payload efficiency, and their NMS is second to none (not to mention, I have been around iDirect IP Transport and iDirect networks since 2003)  

iDirect modems/sat routers can run 4.2 up presently.  However, that is getting ready to change this fall.  With iDS revision 8.X remotes will be able to run upwards of 6MBs+.  This is a HUGE plus for users hosting video, etc.

Personally, I think we are on the verge of something big (entirely new) by the end of this year that is going to shock the entire system once again.

Hi

This ACM feature can also be configured on the HN NOC's.  As this requires the latest HN7000s IDU's it will a little time until all NOCs operate with this feature.  Some DVB S capacity will need to be retained for the current users.

In addition HN and HX VSAT's have a feature called AIS (Automatic Inroute Selection) which also adjusts FEC and symbol rate - this time on the inroutes.

Both features allow the fade margin to be used to provide more bandwidth

Simon Watts (Hughes employee)