Page 18 - World Airnews Magazine August 2020

AVIONICS

VIRTUAL NETWORKING ONLINE

But Inmarsat sees this offering as a step This does not replace the SwiftBroad-

beyond the basic QoS options. band-Safety services that run on L-Band;
he newest twin-aisle aircraft will Kurt Weidemeyer, vice president there are security and performance rea-

Tbe the fi rst to take advantage of an strategy and business development for sons to keep that traffic isolated and on a
improved satellite connectivity architec- Inmarsat aviation said, “What we’ve done dedicated link.

ture from Inmarsat‘s GX Aviation. is created a completely separate pipe. But delivering a discrete operational data
Dubbed “smart pipe,” the system allows So at the network level, we can assign a link within the overall data network allows

for multiple virtual connections to be provi- different quality of service, a different for some creative data management and

sioned across a single satellite link. size to that pipe.” routing options.

Airlines can segment traffic into the sep- As an initial use case Weidemeyer ADDING INTEGRATORS
arate “pipes” to separate passenger data described a desire by one 777X airline cus- TO THE CONNECTIVITY

from operational aircraft information, for tomer to transmit live video off the aircraft. ENVIRONMENT

example. Somewhat surprisingly, however, this is Not only can the different policies be

Moreover, the system allows for differ- not about passenger safety or security. It is applied to the separate pipes, but Inmarsat
ent performance metrics to be applied about cargo. can deliver those connections via different

to each of the “pipes” within the overall “Some people pay a lot of money to ship 3rd party integrators.
satellite stream. It will fly initially on the certain items in the cargo hold, they want it Weidemeyer said described a scenario

Boeing 777X for an undisclosed customer. at any time be able to get a video, yes, my where the same antenna, ModMan and

“This is a significant milestone in de- stuff is still there on the aircraft. That’s one other hardware on the aircraft can support

veloping the truly connected aircraft and of the first use cases.” multiple VARs, “one VAR selling passenger

reinforces Inmarsat’s key role in serving Should network congestion or other service, one VAR selling operational data,”

the aviation industry with a suite of op- circumstances create challenges for the with separate SLAs and other contract

erational and passenger connectivity ser- overall satellite connection, that video feed details. And it can all be delivered across

vices. The results from initial tests for our can be protected better with the smart the GX link.

‘smart pipe’ are promising and we look pipes implementation. “The goal is that we can have third party

forward to continuing our collaboration PUSHING OPERATIONAL VALUE application providers come in and use that

with Boeing in preparation for the forth- pipe and sell directly to the airline,” Weide-
coming entry into service of its new 777X While cargo hold video is an extreme

aircraft,” said Philip Balaam, president of example (though also one paid for by the meyer said.

Inmarsat aviation. customer, so financially compelling straight “That’s going to be down the road right

away) Inmarsat saw other opportunities now. It all depends on the devices and the
MORE THAN JUST A QUALITY OF to segregate airline operational data from architecture is sitting there.”

SERVICE PLAY the passenger traffic. Either the aircraft And as newer aircraft are being designed

Defining performance parameters for manufacturer or the airline can choose with some of these architectures natively
different types of traffic can be handled, to add an extra data network to the GX the opportunity to easily integrate them

to some extent, through Quality of connection on the aircraft, allowing engine continues to grow, something Weidemeyer
Service (QoS) configuration and traffic health, avionics health, on any other type of is all too aware of.

shaping hardware. telemetry to be offloaded from the plane. “We just have to connect to it.” Q
World Airnews | August 2020
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