Satellite and Terrestrial Communications – Achieving an Integrated Network

March 8-11 *New Course

Satellite communications networks offer many possibilities and opportunities in bridging the digital divide and extending broadband services to remote sites. This course takes the next step in the process by defining, describing, and resolving critical issues related to making data and multimedia applications work through the geostationary satellite environment. Each day is dedicated to an important area of investigation and set of solutions to current-day and evolving problems that hamper the integration of satellite and terrestrial networks. Technical and operational aspects of interfacing application data from the user to the satellite network are detailed. How to properly employ key standards also is reviewed, such as TCP/IP, Gigabit Ethernet, Digital Video Broadcast, Asynchronous Transfer Mode, and IP Sec.

The course is intended for working satellite communications engineers, systems architects, network designers who wish to interconnect terrestrial and satellite links efficiently, and business people who need to understand the complex issues that stand in front of creating a working user application. Participants should be able to:

· Understand the geostationary satellite environment and how it impacts the operation and performance of present-day terrestrial data, voice, and multimedia networks

· Learn about digital standards unique to the satellite environment that are suitable for transferring data in various formats

· Gain an appreciation for how satellite networks can be made secure and manageable

· Understand the strengths and weaknesses of TCP/IP over satellite links

· Become familiar with specialized satellite access methods and network management techniques to provide end-to-end services on par with terrestrial networks

· Understand the capabilities and relative merits of satellite versus terrestrial networks as well as the means to provide complementary solutions

Since this course addresses the next level of satellite network design, participants should have some familiarity with satellite links. An understanding of the details of earth stations, satellite communications payloads, and user terminals--while helpful--is not a prerequisite. Application areas include data, voice, and digital video networks, and the integration of these in the commercial and government domains.

Coordinator and Lecturer

Bruce Elbert, MSEE, MBA, President, Application Technology Strategy, Inc., Thousand Oaks, California; and Adjunct Professor, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Mr. Elbert has been involved in the satellite and telecommunications industries for over 30 years and founded ATSI to assist major private and public sector organizations that develop and operate cutting-edge networks using satellite technologies and services. Among his recent projects include providing a full office suite of applications to an ocean-going vessel and the development of a video distribution and data communication network that reaches over 200 locations in the Asia-Pacific Region. During 25 years with Hughes Electronics, he directed the design of several major telecommunications projects, including a multi-beam Ku-band digital broadcasting satellite capable of serving 50 U.S. markets; the management of data communications services to several major corporations using very small aperture terminal (VSAT) facilities; Palapa A, Indonesia's original satellite system composed of 40 earth stations and the associated telephone switching; the Galaxy follow-on system (the largest and most successful satellite TV system in the world); and the development of the first digital processing GEO mobile satellite system capable of serving handheld user terminals. . He has written seven books on telecommunications and IT, including The Satellite Communication Applications Handbook (Artech House, 1997); The Satellite Communication Ground Segment and Earth Station Handbook (Artech House, 2001); and Introduction to Satellite Communication, Second Edition (Artech House, 1999).

Lecturer

D.C. Palter, BSME, MBA, Vice President, Mentat Inc., Los Angeles, CA. Mr. Palter is responsible for licensing TCP/IP and other networking protocol stacks to computer manufacturers and TCP/IP link acceleration technology to the satellite industry. He is a frequent speaker on Internet over Satellite at industry events and has contributed articles on TCP/IP performance enhancement techniques to numerous satellite, networking and telecommunications publications. Prior to joining Mentat in 1995, Mr. Palter was with the Asia Pacific office of Hughes Electronics. He was previously a research engineer in computational fluid dynamics of combusting flows at Kobe Steel in Japan and a designer of emergency power units for Allied Signal in Los Angeles, California. Mr. Palter is the author of Satellites and the Internet--Challenges and Solutions (SatNews Publishers, 2003) and Kinki Japanese (Tuttle, 1995), a textbook on the Osaka dialect of Japanese.

UCLA Faculty Representative

Kung Yao, PhD, Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science

Daily Schedule

Monday

Fundamentals (Elbert)

· Structure of satellite networks: relationship to the five layers of the OSI model

· Digital standards: IP, Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), ATM, MPEG family

· The standard transmission chain: end-to-end via the uplink and downlink

· Focus on baseband and interfaces

--Impact of services at the physical layer of satellite communications: RF as a black box

--Multiplexing

--Compression

--Acceleration and adaptation

· Security

--Privacy

--Encryption technology

--Authentication

--Key management over satellite links

· Interface issues

--Connectionless and connection-oriented communications

--Point-to-multipoint information transfer

--Dialing and connection

--Mobility management

--Gateway functions

· Interoperability

--Radio frequency

--Air interface/user device

--Physical and data link

--Application

· Integration

--Fixed versus mobile

--Open versus proprietary

--Centralized versus decentralized

Tuesday

Satellite-Based Data Communications Standards (Elbert)

· Satellite access protocol structures

· Characteristics and impact of multiple access on operation and throughput

--TDMA

--CDMA

--ALOHA

· Data integration using IP encapsulation into MPEG

· DVB-S

· DVB-Return Channel via Satellite (DVB-RCS)

· Data over Cable Interface Specification (DOCSIS) applied to satellite networks

· Network management aspects

--Provisioning and fault isolation

--Administration

--Quality of service

· VSAT network case study

Wednesday

The Internet Protocol and Satellite Communications (Palter)

· Introduction to TCP/IP

--Networking protocols

--TCP/IP protocol suite

--IP, UDP, and TCP

· Operation of TCP

· Limitations of TCP over satellite

--Satellite conditions: latency, bit errors, asymmetric bandwidth

--Window size and bandwidth delay product

--Acknowledgements and retransmission algorithms

--Congestion control mechanisms

· TCP modifications

--Standards-track

--Research stage

· TCP enhancement solutions

--LEO/MEO satellites

--Multiconnection applications

--Satellite optimized protocols

--Caching

--Prefetching

--Compression

--Spoofing

· Protocol gateways (TCP-PEP)

--Architecture

--Network design

--Performance data

· Multicast

--Reliable and nonreliable multicast

--Reliable multicast solutions

--Reliable multicast fan-out

· TCP enhancement and VPNs

--Link layer security

--Application layer security

--IPsec

· Protocol gateway demonstration

Thursday

Relative Merits of Terrestrial and Satellite Communications (Elbert)

· Voice and telephone communications

--Digital voice standards (G series)

--Telephone interfaces: analog and digital

--Call setup and termination

· Convergence of information types: video, voice, image, text, BLOB

· Proper role of fiber optics

--Domestic fiber carriers: Gigabit Ethernet

--International fiber cables and diversity

--Reliable design: integrating terrestrial and satellite

· Synchronization and timing

--Device-level synchronization issues

--Network timing

--Standards: atomic, GPS

· Network management

--In-band systems: simple network management protocol

--Out-of-band systems: monitor and control systems

· Business interfaces

--Operation support systems

--Business support systems

--Customer relationship management

For more information call the Short Course Program Office at (310) 825-3344; fax (310) 206-2815.

Dates March 8-11 (Monday through Thursday)

Time 8 am-5 pm (subject to adjustment after the first class meeting)

Location Room G-33 West, UCLA Extension Building, 10995 Le Conte Avenue (adjacent to the UCLA campus), Los Angeles, California

Reg#

Course No. Engineering 881.219

Units 2.4 CEU (24 hours of instruction)

Fee $1695, includes course materials
$100 nonrefundable; no refund after February 26, 2004; however, course fee (less $100) may be applied toward another short course enrollment.