Innovative return technology results in new service offerings with three times more throughput in shared bandwidth networks; performance validated by early adopter Speedcast

ST Engineering iDirect, a global leader in satellite communications, today announced that its MDM5010 modem has achieved an aggregate speed of 600Mbps, making it the industry’s fastest satellite modem for shared bandwidth capacity networks. While these speeds have previously only been achieved with single channel per carrier (SCPC) point-to-point modems, bandwidth-sharing efficiencies can now be augmented to satisfy the most demanding throughput requirements in markets such as cruise, trunking and cellular backhaul.

Delivering three times more return throughput at 200Mbps using the innovative Mx-DMA return technology, coupled with up to 400Mbps on the DVB-S2X outbound for an aggregate speed of 600Mbps, the MDM5010 modem delivers enhanced Quality of Experience (QoE) for high throughput applications such as broadband connectivity to thousands of cruise passengers, crew and devices, including rich media streaming and content uploading.

ST Engineering iDirect’s Mx-DMA return technology, a core feature of the award-winning Newtec Dialog^® platform, is a patented, efficient and dynamic waveform which enables service providers to seamlessly share satellite capacity more efficiently over a group of satellite modems. In this latest Dialog Release 2.2.3, the maximum return symbol rate per modem increased from 20Msps to 68Msps, which equates to a throughput increase from 70Mbps to 200Mbps on the inbound.

“This is of huge significance, especially for the maritime and cell backhaul markets where demand for throughput and performance is increasing exponentially,” said Bart Van Poucke, Vice President, Products, ST Engineering iDirect. “With the need for very high speeds on the inbound, we pushed the boundaries of our Mx-DMA return technology to break the speed limit while increasing the flexibility and operational efficiencies that our customers depend on. This breakthrough will deliver the highest quality connectivity experience for users and enable our customers to offer the widest range of applications to expand their market share.”

Longtime partner and early adopter Speedcast International, a communications and IT services provider, validated the performance of the MDM5010 operating with the latest Mx-DMA waveform. Speedcast has deployed the technology across key sectors supported by their global multi-band network including cruise vessels, mega yachts, and other customer sets with significant bandwidth requirements. The Dialog platform and MDM5010 modems enable Speedcast to maximize bandwidth efficiencies by mixing very high speeds with large-scale modem deployments in the same bandwidth pool, equipping it to support higher throughput to meet passenger and operational demands while operating effectively across a multi-beam, multi-band satellite network.

“Speedcast has embarked on a strategic initiative to completely rearchitect our global mobility network, building a platform that can support the most demanding of customer operations, and any application requirement.  We view Dialog as a fundamental building block of Speedcast’s new Unified Global Platform. The combined strengths of our overarching architecture and best-of-breed technology means that we can deliver the speeds and flexibility that meets our clients’ emerging requirements and operational needs across multiple verticals, including fixed terminals, rapid deploy terminals and mobility,” said Chris Hill, Chief Technology Officer, Speedcast.  “From a technical perspective, the MDM5010 is an important part of the upper bound of our network platform, allowing us to deliver satellite links that are impressive not only in terms of Mbps, but also in terms of packet per second and simultaneous session counts.  Many of our clients are already benefiting from this latest generation technological innovation, and we look forward to the further deployment to customers as our network re-architecture continues to progress.”