Technology

ITV denotes a VSAT network product to be operated via geostationary satellites with transparent transponders. Based on SkyWAN® products of ND SatCom, ITV network supports multimedia services (voice, video, LAN interconnection) and offers the users the main benefit of VSAT networks which is the direct access to the satellites' widespread coverage via small antennas installed at the users' premises.



MF-TDMA satellite access is used to provide fully meshed connectivity between all network nodes and to efficiently exploit the satellite channel capacity. The integration of real time and non real time services is emphasized in the SkyWAN® approach which is based on packet switching technology. The two generic interfaces are Ethernet (LAN) and Frame Relay, where the latter provides real time services in addition to non real time services. Because of its ability to use satellite transmission capacity in the order of several Mbit/s an SkyWAN® network is well suited for corporate networks serving main locations of customers with intensive communication demands. The network management is based on SNMP supporting the integration of SkyWAN® into existing network environments and allowing additional services such as scheduled allocation of bandwidth e.g. for video conferencing. In summary the main characteristics of SkyWAN® are:

The main purpose of ITV is to build independent communication infrastructure on the territory of Bulgaria providing high quality communications and services. Communication infrastructure is based on the DAMA and MF-TDMA satellite communication technologies integrated with terrestrial communication systems.
Satellite communication network of ITV proposes all kind of network services like pure IP transfer, VoIP, IP telephony, video conferencing on the DVB platform, MPLS routing, Internet delivery, International gateways for data, telephony and private networking. Value added services are based on: web hosting servers, collocations e-mail hosting, e-mail gateways, e-government and e-business applications. Different media applications and a new service for Bulgaria: mobile SNG - serving the Bulgarian media.

ITV satellite network may be used as main communication infrastructure and also as a backup communication infrastructure serving already existing corporate networks and connectivity with high requirements for network reliability.

ITV network is fully adaptive and may be integrated to any existing customers’s communication devices or existing communication infrastructure.
Satellite communications permits to establish connectivity at random point on the territory of Bulgaria. This is very important for the regions where the conventional communications are not well developed.
Satellite network backbone is places in all 26 main regional cities in the country.
Aggregating part is a hybrid solution and is designed to fulfill all the customer’s needs and possibilities. Customers may be connected to the backbone with local leased lines, MAN connectivity, wireless WLL, ISDN, or directly with a small VSAT station.

Technology

Satellite network is based on the DAMA technology (Demand Assignment Multiple Access ) that means very economically usage of the satellite capacity with perfect QoS. This give the possibility to provide high quality services at very attractive prices.
This technology permits configuration like STAR, of FULL MESHED network or combination between them. This advantage gives the possibi9lity to configure any type of networks following the customer’s topological and logical structure.
There is no restriction concerning the capacity. Satellite network can handle more than 70 Mbit/s backbone capacity. ITV network may handle clients like small offices to big corporate or government networks.
Network reliability is very high and it is about 99 to 99.9% which is impossible to be achieved with terrestrial infrastructure where the reliability is no more 75 %.

Satellite network is based on the SkyWAN® which is a MF-TDMA DAMA VSAT system with a maximum of 8 frequency channels. Each channel has a capacity of up to 5 Mega Symbols (8 mbit/s) , resulting in a maximum network capacity of up to 70 Mbit/s. Frequency hopping among these channels with different data rates and FECs is possible. SkyWAN® consists of an Indoor Unit (IDU) and the Radio Frequency Terminals (RFTs). The IDU is a packet switching device, which processes all IP and Frame Relay Packets according to their priority. Each IDU contains one Ethernet/Fast Ethernet port and up to four operational Frame Relay ports. ND SatCom’s product family of Frame Relay Access Devices (FADs) are attached to those Frame Relay ports in an optimal way and provide a complete range of legacy protocols such as serial line interfaces, HDLC, X.25 as well as analogue and digital voice channels. The IDU is linked to the RFT via the L-band interface, thus supporting broadband applications via satellite cost-effectively. RFTs are available in C-band and Ku-band in various power levels, and will be customized precisely to network requirements.


DVB IP services



Functionality

The main functionality is the possibility for full integration with the existing communication equipments and infrastructure of the customers The network may be used as a main or backup according the customers needs. Next important functionality is the International connectivity. ITV may propose international links for data, internet, voice, IP telephony, VPN's, video exchange etc. This permits to each customer to have direct access to Internet and international connectivity including data , video, channels for worldwide GSM roaming etc. MPLS based routing over the network, permits to have QoS for the dedicated links to each end-user.