Re:FCC has “serious doubts” that SpaceX can deliver latencie...
by ncmncm on Sunday June 14, 2020 @11:53PM
(#23523624)
Radio, whether local or via LEO satellites, absolutely can beat fiber. Routinely. That is much of the value proposition of SpaceX's product.
Microwave links from Chicago to New York claimed hundreds of millions in investment exactly on the prospect of selling reduced transit time at a premium. Similar gains on the New York - London channel, via Starlink, would be much more valuable.
The reason fiber is slow is that the signal does not propagate in a vacuum. It loses 30+% of the speed of signals propagated through air or vacuum.
Where fiber wins is on bulk bandwidth. A radio link has limited capacity, but it can get the first few packets through soonest. Starlink might start out with some pretty draconian tradffic caps.
I have heard of hollow-core fiber, where the beam travels in what amounts to a tube in the middle of the fiber, but I don't know of any deployed.
Microwave links from Chicago to New York claimed hundreds of millions in investment exactly on the prospect of selling reduced transit time at a premium. Similar gains on the New York - London channel, via Starlink, would be much more valuable.
The reason fiber is slow is that the signal does not propagate in a vacuum. It loses 30+% of the speed of signals propagated through air or vacuum.
Where fiber wins is on bulk bandwidth. A radio link has limited capacity, but it can get the first few packets through soonest. Starlink might start out with some pretty draconian tradffic caps.
I have heard of hollow-core fiber, where the beam travels in what amounts to a tube in the middle of the fiber, but I don't know of any deployed.