Re:Starlink Is a Big Deal
by Robotbeat on Thursday January 30, 2020 @11:22AM
(#22192527)
The throughput per satellite is not fixed. The constellation is designed to be refreshed and upgraded (more beams, more phased array elements, better back-end) about every 4-5 years. Geosynchronous satellites can have up to 1 terabit per satellite (and increasing). The size of the constellation may eventually be up to 40,000 satellites, many at an even lower altitude which increases gain in each direction. So on the order of 40Petabit/s throughput is doable in the medium-term.
And of course, people don't use 100MB/s constantly. The ratio is not uncommonly 1:100 in max vs average throughput, and this ratio is higher the greater the max bandwidth (average used throughput increases sub-linearly with max throughput). So say about 1Mbps average per user with 40Pbps constellation-wide, and you're looking at on the order of billions of connections possible at the largest scale.
Still about 12Pbps possible at 12000 satellites. Enough for billions of connections still.
Even at 20Gbps and 12,000 satellites and 1Mbps average usage per connection, that's still on the order of a hundred million connections.
More likely, they'll have fewer-than-billions of connections with more available average bandwidth than 1Mbps. But it definitely is a gamechanger in rural internet capability.
And of course, people don't use 100MB/s constantly. The ratio is not uncommonly 1:100 in max vs average throughput, and this ratio is higher the greater the max bandwidth (average used throughput increases sub-linearly with max throughput). So say about 1Mbps average per user with 40Pbps constellation-wide, and you're looking at on the order of billions of connections possible at the largest scale.
Still about 12Pbps possible at 12000 satellites. Enough for billions of connections still.
Even at 20Gbps and 12,000 satellites and 1Mbps average usage per connection, that's still on the order of a hundred million connections.
More likely, they'll have fewer-than-billions of connections with more available average bandwidth than 1Mbps. But it definitely is a gamechanger in rural internet capability.