Kymeta, the communications company making mobile global, announced seamless interoperability between the Kymeta u8 terminal, Kepler Communications low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, and geostationary (GEO) SATCOM terminals at an annual military battle lab exercise focused on the integration of operations, intelligence, and technology.
The u8 is the first and only terminal available today to demonstrate the automatic handover between a GEO SATCOM terminal and Kepler LEO constellation with high throughput for communications on the move (COTM) and the pause (COTP). Today’s warfighters require access to command and control (C2) networks providing message traffic, email, VoIP, and VTCs as well as higher throughput networks for sending and receiving large amounts of data. The demonstration proved that access to C2 networks and high throughput communications is possible with a single integrated terminal, the u8.
Rob Weitendorf, Vice President of Business Development at Kymeta said that while today’s mobile forces operating in remote environments may have communication access through a traditional very small aperture terminal (VSAT) or legacy COTM terminals, they do not have access to the high-throughput LEO constellations. The u8 provides the needed capacity and seamless connectivity between LEO and GEO satellites. They could not be more thrilled with their demo's excitement from the Special Forces community at the event.
Three stationary ground stations with GEO and LEO capabilities located in Inuvik, Canada, Redmond, WA, and Tuscon, AZ were combined with one mobile terminal at the demonstration in Virginia Beach, VA. Each station had access to six Kepler LEO satellites and two GEO satellites. The change from GEO to LEO and linear to circular polarization was automated and accomplished via software only. Kymeta and Kepler’s experimentation was focused on providing high data rate point-to-point communications where data was transmitted from ground station to ground station without connection to the cloud, followed by GEO SATCOM for day-to-day operations.
Results exceeded expectations and demonstrated a significant increase in performance with lower latency, enhanced look angles, and speeds that are approaching 10X faster than earlier products with higher throughput and total data passed. Testing results included download speeds of 240 Mbps and upload speeds of 193 Mbps achieved with over 2 GB of data transferred during a single LEO pass. This capability has utility in polar regions where high-throughput communications are unavailable and mechanically-steered antennas struggle in low temperatures.
The demonstration further validates Kymeta’s ability to provide an LEO upgrade path for its u8 terminals and seamlessly leverage hybrid connectivity across multiple satellite constellations and ground LTE. Kymeta is the only flat-panel antenna (FPA) with electronic beam steering and no moving parts built for mobility and designed for the needs of military, public safety, and commercial customers.
