Hybrid Satellite Terrestrial Transport Accelerator
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Solution Overview
Problem
High latency in satellite communications leads to longer load times for interactive traffic, while low latency terrestrial systems face capacity limitations and infrastructure challenges, making it difficult to provide a combined transport with both high throughput and low latency.
Innovation Solution
Integrating a low latency, lower throughput terrestrial transport with a high latency, high throughput satellite transport using an accelerator and peer accelerator to create a combined system that leverages the benefits of both, with packet inspection and routing based on latency and throughput metrics to optimize traffic flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If high throughput satellite transport is used, then throughput is improved, but latency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments network traffic into different types (interactive/latency-sensitive vs. bulk/throughput-sensitive) and routes them through different transport paths. The accelerator divides incoming traffic streams, sending time-sensitive packets over low-latency terrestrial networks while routing bulk data through high-throughput satellite connections, thereby resolving the throughput-latency tradeoff.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically selects transport paths based on real-time traffic characteristics, network conditions, and packet priorities. The accelerator and peer accelerator continuously adapt routing decisions, switching between satellite and terrestrial transports as needed, enabling the system to optimize for either throughput or latency depending on current requirements.
2Loss of time
If low latency terrestrial transport is used, then latency is reduced, but throughput is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments network traffic into different types (interactive/latency-sensitive vs. bulk/throughput-sensitive) and routes them through different transport paths. The accelerator divides incoming traffic streams, sending time-sensitive packets over low-latency terrestrial networks while routing bulk data through high-throughput satellite connections, thereby resolving the throughput-latency tradeoff.
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges multiple transport networks (terrestrial and satellite) into a unified hybrid transport system. The accelerator and peer accelerator coordinate to combine the low-latency path for control signals and the high-throughput satellite path for data transfer, creating a unified communication channel that delivers both low latency and high throughput simultaneously.
3Device complexity
If fixed route routing is used in multiple transport implementations, then routing is simplified, but connection continuity is lost during transport switching
Solution Approach 1:
The accelerator and peer accelerator act as intermediary devices that maintain connection state information and coordinate transport switching. When switching between satellite and terrestrial transports, these intermediaries preserve connection contexts, manage IP path transitions, and ensure seamless handoff, thereby maintaining connection continuity while enabling flexible routing.
4Area of stationary object
If satellite transport is used for broad coverage, then coverage area is improved, but ground infrastructure requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges satellite transport (providing broad coverage) with minimal terrestrial infrastructure (local accelerators and peer accelerators). By combining these approaches, the system achieves wide geographic coverage through satellite while requiring only small ground-based acceleration nodes, significantly reducing the extensive ground infrastructure that would be needed for comparable terrestrial-only networks.
Data Source
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AI summary
An accelerator and system to provide a combined transport Wide-Area Network (WAN) transports. The accelerator includes a tunnel manager to maintain tunnels traversing each of the WAN transports; an inspector to perform packet and IP flow classification to set a respective classification metric for a downstream packet to be sent over the combined transport; a transport selector to select a preferred tunnel from the tunnels based on the respective classification metric of the downstream packet; and a sender to send the downstream packet over the preferred tunnel. In the accelerator, the WAN transports include a high latency satellite transport and a low latency transport, and a respective tunnel connects the accelerator to a peer accelerator via one of the WAN transports. The accelerator includes a receiver to receive upstream packets arriving over the combined transport and to forward the upstream packets to a user equipment.