Tooway is asatellite broadbandInternet service available acrossEurope. The first version of the service was launched in 2007 via twoEutelsatgeostationarysatellites,Hot Bird 6 andEurobird 3, respectively at the 13° and 33° East orbital positions.[1]
At the end of 2010, Eutelsat launchedKA-SAT, the first EuropeanHigh Throughput Satellite to operate inKa band. KA-SAT was positioned at 9° East, and delivers Internet access andbroadcast services toward Europe and theMediterranean Basin.[2] Commercial service started on KA-SAT at the end of May 2011. Tooway services over KA-SAT satellite provide up to 50 Mbit/sdownstream and up to 6 Mbit/supstream.
Tooway makes use of theInternet Protocol over satellite to provide consumers across Europe and the Mediterranean Basin withInternet access. Unlike services relying on terrestrial infrastructures (such ascable orADSL), satellites provide service in widecoverage areas as broad as acontinent.[3]
Terrestrialwireless broadband technologies focus on denseurban centers and leave consumers outside these areas withnarrowband connections or no connection at all.[4]Unserved and unsatisfied users were estimated to reach 30 millionhouseholds inWestern andEastern Europe by 2010.[5][6]
Tooway services operate overKa band andKu band via Eutelsat's geostationary satellites. This enabledbit rates of 3.6 Mbit/s downstream and 384 kbit/s upstream in 2009.[7] Service differentiation is done on volume consumption per month through aFair Access Policy. When consumption is above volume thresholds, the service remains available but at lower speeds.[8]
Tooway also provides aVoice over IP service for voice telephone calls over the Internet.[9]
In mid-2011, commercial use of KA-SAT with theSurfBeam 2 system fromViaSat allowed higher bit-rates and volumes at the same price over the European coverage area. Tooway service over KA-SAT satellite provides up to 50 Mbit/sdownstream and up to 6 Mbit/supstream[2][10]Since KA-SAT is located at 9°E, near Eutelsat's HOT BIRD TV neighborhood (13° East), Internet Protocol services can be combined withDigital Video Broadcasting television service using a single satellite dish with twolow noise block-downconverters.[2][9]This means subscribers can accesssatellite TV channels without additional dishes.[11]Tooway also marketsIPTV services withVideo on Demand andDigital video recorder features.[9]
ViaSatSurfBeam technology uses the Ka band, approximately twice as high infrequency as Ku band. This implies a smaller beam which contributes towards smaller end-user terminals.[12]
| Uplink | Downlink | |
|---|---|---|
| Ka band | 27.5 GHz - 30.0 GHz | 17.7 GHz - 20.2 GHz |
| Ku band | 12.75 GHz - 14.5 GHz | 10.7 GHz - 12.75 GHz[13] |
Smaller beams allow more efficient use of satellite power on theforward link and improvedG/T (Gain-over-Temperature) on thereturn link.[14] Smaller beams draw smaller cells on ground (beam footprint) which also permits more cells in a given service area, increasing frequency reuse.[12]
Ka band has less interference than Ku band, since fewer satellites operate in this frequency.[12]
Tooway and ViaSatSurfBeam make use ofDVB-S2Variable Coding and Modulation technologies.[13]
Adaptive Coding and Modulation gathersfading conditions from each terminal and adapts signal encoding and modulation to each individual terminal's receiving condition. This allows efficient transmission to each terminal, without degenerating the efficiency of the whole network. Areturn channel on the end-user terminal is needed to send the condition changes.
Variable Coding and Modulation does not require a return channel and does not adapt to fading conditions in real-time. Instead a static efficiency is defined for each terminal according to the availability needed. This improves waveform efficiency as opposed to Constant Code and Modulation which forces to apply the worstlink budget to the entire spot.
The IPTV service usesH.264Scalable Video Coding (SVC) forvideo coding.SVC allows transmitting the same video coded with different resolutions or bit-rates. For example, a high definition program could be received by a terminal in clear sky conditions while the standard definition could be received by a terminal affected by fading conditions during rain. In more stringent fading conditions, a program with even lower bit-rate could use an H.264 SVC stream.
Customer equipment comprises an Outdoor Unit (ODU) and Indoor Unit (IDU).The ODU is aparabolic satellite antenna manufactured by ViaSat of typically 60–70 cm in diameter.[1]
The ViaSatSurfBeam antenna employs a frequency selective sub-reflector that allows reflecting one range of frequency while being transparent to another range. This feature enables the reception of both interactive services in Ka band and broadcast services (DTH) in Ku band with the same ODU.[15]
The installation of the ODU employs automated tools for simplified antenna alignment and commissioning. The installation procedure is identical anywhere within the satellite service area and the use ofcircular polarization further simplifies the setup which permits to reduce the time and cost of the home installation.[10] Although the installation could be done by some advanced users, it is recommended to contact acertified Tooway installer.[15]Poor alignment of the dish system results in higher error rates and a lower broadband speed. The relatively unique transmission system ofTurbo Code 8PSK used is not recognized with standard DVB-S or DVB-S2 installation meters.Horizon Global Electronics manufactures a Test and Measurement meter specifically designed to align the Tooway dish.HD-TC8Applied Instruments also manufactures a Test and Measurement meter, the model Super Buddy 29, designed to align the Tooway dish.Super Buddy 29None of these two meters are able to do the new Viasat SurfBeam DVB-S2 signals. Also for these higher capacity signals and in addition on the higher Ka band, the accuracy of the installation becomes much more critical. Maxpeak AB (publ) manufactures a meter specifically for these new signals, SAM-plus (DVB-S2 ACM and VCM)[1]. The current KA-SAT Surfbeam TRIA (dish receiving block) incorporates an audible tuner allowing accurate pointing of the dish without any additional external meter.
The IDU is asatellite modem providing aplug-and-playEthernet interface[9] withDHCP. The current version is manufactured by ViaSat. AWiFirouter may be connected to the satellite modem in order to deploywireless Internet access in the home. Nosoftware is required on thecomputer.[13] Recent changes (mid-2012) to the software disabled DHCP in the modem/system which means the subscriber must provide their own router with DHCP server if they use more than one device connecting to the internet.
LED indicators on the modem front inform on satellite reception and transmission statuses (RX and TX) as well as on network activities.[16]
The IDU is connected to the ODU using twocoaxial cables.[16]
Packages, called Tooway 2, 10, 25,40, Extra and Infinite, became available through service providers all over Europe in May 2014 which offer downstream rates of up to 22 Mbit/s and upstream up to 6 Mbit/s (excepting entry level service). The Small entry-level package provides bit-rates of 2 Mbit/s downstream and 1 Mbit/s upstream with a volume (FAP) of about2GB.[17]
Theround-trip time inherent tosatellite communications comes from thedouble hop betweenearth andspace. All communications travel at thespeed of light (approx. 300 million metres per second or 671 million miles per hour) from a terminal on ground to a satellite in geostationary orbit (approx. 36,000 km or 22,000 miles in altitude), then to another terminal on earth and back. The result is roughly a half a second round-trip time which may be unsuitable forreal-time critical applications, including many games, though it is sufficient to support other applications, including (with minimal delays), VoIP.
Tooway domestic consumers are subject to a 1/50 contention rate which under peak loading, typically from 17:00 GMT onwards can result in heavily degraded performance for applications such as streaming media services which manifests as pausing, buffering and heavily pixellated pictures.
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