Project Proposal for CSC 579

The Starlink Project

OMOWUNMI OLALUDE

V00912070

https://sites.google.com/view/starlinkproject/home

Broadband is the most common form of internet access. The word “broadband” refers to wide-bandwidth data transmission[1]. Instead of sending internet signals through electric cables, which must be physically laid down to reach far-flung places, satellite internet works by beaming information through the vacuum of space, where it travels 47% faster than in fiber-optic cable[2].

SpaceX's Starlink project has one simple goal: to provide constant high-speed internet access to users around the world. Currently technology limitations often leave remote and rural areas without access; SpaceX wants to change that[2].

Some pros of satellite internet include: Satellite internet connections can handle high bandwidth usage, so internet speed/quality shouldn’t be affected by lots of users or “peak use times.”, You don’t need a phone line for satellite internet and so on[3].

I'm curious about the technology behind the Starlink project. Right now, some areas on earth are not covered by terrestrial wireless due to economical reasons. Satellite systems however, will cover almost the entire globe.

Questions i want to ask with this project are:

• The difference in latency between information travelling through fibre optic cables and vacuum.
• What is the topology of the satellites ?
• What is the reason for choosing certain design options?

With regards the evaluation of the system, hypothetically, i would love to measure the performance of the satellite internet when compared to regular terrestrial internet.

Weeks

Work done

January 27- February 7

Project website setup. Initial research on the project and related works

February 7 - February 21

More research on the project and why particular design options were chosen. Effects of some of these choices on the performance of the system

February 21- March 6

Evaluate the performance of the system

March 6 - March 20

Finish evaluation of performance of system

March 20 - April 3

Project demo done and report finished

References

1. https://www.reviews.org/internet-service/what-is-broadband-internet/
2. https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellites.html
3. http://www.plugthingsin.com/internet/satellite/