ARTES Applications Workshop Rome – 18/19 April 2013

Background-1

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• 2009: Market study “Use of satellite triple play services in emerging countries” (ARTES 1)

• 2010: Pre-operations of Astra2Connect in Africa • 2011: SatFinAfrica Pilot Project co-funded by ESA (ARTES 3-4 Applications)

• 2012: Incorporation of SatADSL as the operating spin-off of Sea&Space. End

2012, SatADSL became an S.A.

• 2012-2014: SatFinAfrica CCN#1 and CCN#2 activities to provide additional features (e.g. Virtual Network Operator )

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Background-2 SatADSL Mission • Offer affordable broadband satellite service to Africa • Target SoHos, SMEs and small branches of big corporations

Background-3: Business Model

Corporate Customers

Products Bandwidth Connectivity & VA Services

African Partner (ISP or Telco)

SoHo/SME

Technology

Remote Branches

ATMs Money Transfer Branches

Background-4: Coverage T11N/ASTRA4A

Background-5: Sat3Play User Terminal

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• End-users: over 650 active terminals (about 100 financial customers )

• 25 Distributors spread over Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, RDC,

Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, Benin, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, Zimbwawe, Mozambique, Angola, South Africa, etc…

Background-6: Achievements To Date

1. Demonstrate the suitability of Sat3Play platform, originally designed for serving the consumer market, for reliable and secured financial institutions applications in emerging countries

2. Demonstrations and a Pilot Project in West Africa • Financial institutions represent a fast growing market • Remote sites in Africa often too small to justify the investment in a classic corporate VSAT • Need to develop a corporate version of Astra2Connect service, tailored to the need of financial

institutions • Pilot project to demonstrate the suitability of the new corporate service

3. SatFinAfrica CCN#1: • Devise and pilot solutions to improve service availability in heavy rains (ACM technology and

1.2m ODU) • Develop a Network Management System (NMS) prototype, allowing SatADSL to configure and

manage its own services

SatFinAfrica (and CCN#1) Objectives

SatFinAfrica Film

http://iap.esa.int/sites/default/files/SatFinAfrica_Promo_Low-Res.mp4

Applications – Money Transfer • MTC User profile:

– Money Transfer Companies (MTCs), and Microfinance – Large number of branches spread all over the country – Typical remote branch has a small LAN with 3-5 computers and telephones – Need for affordable telecommunications service

• MTC User Applications: – International/national financial applications based on client-server transactions

• Use of https protocol over the Internet

– Own Client-server banking applications (e.g. accounting) • Use of https protocol over the Internet • Server located in the MTC HQ connected by terrestrial means (fiber) to the Internet

– Telephony and Office Applications (Email, web browsing…)

Applications – Money Transfer

Express Union remote branch in Cameroon

EMI Money remote branch in Cameroon

Applications – Money Transfer

0

5

10

15

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25

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35

40Tr

affic

Ave

rage

on

30 m

in (K

bps)

Kbps

MTC – Site 1

FW Best Effort

RT Best Effort

FW High Priority

RT High Priority

High Priority channels (FW and RT) carries critical client-server transactional traffic

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Applications – Money Transfer Pilot Results • Pilot concluded successfully with 33 sites involved • Possibility to fine tune the MTC service packages to

optimise them to the needs of the customers • Identified issue with service availability during heavy

rains. Possible solutions: use of ACM, larger antennas, more powerful iLNB

• More than 100 MTC sites running commercially at the moment

• Extending the network of one of the main customer internationally

• Acquiring MTC customers in different countries

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• ATM User profile: – Bank, – Bank Consortium operating ATMs

• ATM User Applications: – Connect ATMs in non-bank locations – Authenticate and authorize cash transactions – High security – VPN tunneling on the Internet

Applications – Automatic Telling Machines

Applications – Automatic Telling Machines

ATM Ghana petrol station

ATM Zambia

Applications – Automatic Telling Machines The Communications Network for ATM Demonstrations in Ghana

Applications – Automatic Telling Machines Test Results • Transactions are performed securely through an IPSec VPN. SatADSL

service for ATM has proved to perfectly cope with end-to-end VPN set-up. • Estimated 150 transactions per week (+/- 20 per day) • SatADSL offers a unique feature, with its ATM tailored service: prioritization

of ATM transactions • Very affordable solution on both CAPEX and OPEX, especially as

compared to traditional radio local loop systems, which need costly mast and radio systems

• Very high availability even during rain conditions thanks to ACM technology • Bank Network Manager has full visibility over the satellite connections to

his ATM terminals • Requests for specific value-added services for this application, that will be

offered to ATM network operators as from mid-2013

• VPN User profile: – Banks, – Insurances

Applications – Virtual Private Networks • VPN User Applications:

– Connect remote branches to HQ – Financial transactions and office applications – Secure communications

VPN IPsec tunneling (encrypted link) SSL encryption Remote sites in an Intranet

Test Results: • End-to-end VPN using acceleration equipment

• The technical configuration and subsequent integration into the customers’ IP environment is very (if not too) challenging

• The support from the customer’s technical staff is required, especially within secured environments which is the norm for IPSec VPN networks

• SatADSL decided not to offer these solution for the time being • Accelerating traffic over the satellite link, by previously discriminating the

different types of traffic

The Customer Management Tool - CMT • Customer Management Tool (CMT) is key to business model. It allows

SatADSL, African ISPs and Customers to manage and monitor terminals

• Monitoring: • List of terminals per distributor • View on volumes consumed and connections parameters • Need for technical assistance to Distributors and end-users • Export of consumption information to billing and invoicing system

• Manage: • Management of terminal life cycle (activation, de-activation) • Manage Users (Distributors, End-User, Administrators and Operators)

The Customer Management Tool - CMT

The Customer Management Tool - CMT

The Customer Management Tool - CMT

The Customer Management Tool - CMT

The Network Management System - NMS

NMS Functions: 1. Shaping FWD and RTN traffic for each

terminal 2. Measure volume of each terminal 3. when the consumed volume of a terminal is

over certain limits: A. Reroute terminal traffic (using vouchers to buy

extra volume) B. Lower bandwidth

The Network Management System - NMS

SatADSL NMS Demonstrator

Test IP Traffic

@

SES Hub Luxembourg

SatADSL Extended

CMT

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SatADSL African ISP

@

Operational IP Traffic

Pilot Results • NMS pilot was concluded with positive results in mid-April • NMS proved to offer all the basic functionalities required, both in

terms of connectivity and terminal management • Next phase to address reliability and service continuity

systematically by providing hardware and software redundancy to the whole infrastructure (CCN#2)

• Pilot also highlighted the need to develop: • a user friendly operator interface (CCN#2) • a number of more advanced traffic sniffing and shaping

functions (CCN#2)

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The Network Management System - NMS

Pilot Roll-out • SES tested P/F and produced coverage map. • Pilot was started with 10 financial institutions sites. • By end of November 2012, more than 100 news sites had

already been activated on ASTRA4A

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ACM Pilot

Issues Identified • Hub software version did not allow the new MDM2200 terminals

to download the latest version of the terminal software. • Instability of the connection in regions on the border of the

Astra4A coverage, with older version of the iLNB (500mW) Pilot Results • At the end of March new ACM platform used by more than 300

users with excellent performances. • SatADSL decision to migrate all customers from the T11N

platform to the new A4A ACM platform

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1.2m ODU Pilot

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1.2m ODU Pilot

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1.2m ODU Pilot

Pilot Results • 1.2m ODU increases link budget margin by around 2-2.5dB • This is generally enough to ensure very high service

availability in areas with good satellite coverage • 1.2m ODU in conjunction with operations on ACM platform,

solved the service availability issue raised by one of the major MTC customers in Cameroon

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1.2m ODU Pilot

Conclusions Solutions for the Financial applications developed, implemented and tested

• Money Transfer Pilot completed successfully • Improved service availability pilots (ACM and 1.2m ODU) completed

successfully allowing improved performances and increased service availability • ATM (including VPN) tests successful. Pilots ongoing (CCN#2) • CMT development, testing and validation completed

• Distributors highly satisfied

• NMS Fully Functional demonstrator developed, tested and validated • Thanks to SatFinAfrica the service is offered commercially by SatADSL

• 650 active terminals in all sub-saharan Africa • More than 100 sites with financial institutions

Thank You !

For additional information, please contact us at team@satadsl.net or visit www.satadsl.net