V-Sat Network Plan Of Ordnance Units Cleared

The department of telecommunications (DoT) has allowed defence ordnance factories to set up a private very small aperture terminal (V-Sat) satellite network for multimedia communication.

This is the only private network cleared this year. DoT had stopped issuing private network licences after allowing a batch of three, including one for the National Stock Exchange. Instead, it has licensed eight companies to provide V-Sat connections to client organisations. This is to avoid waste of satellite transponder time, as private networks tend to let some of their V-Sat time go unused.

The defence ordnance factories network is being implemented by Bharat Electronics in collaboration with ARK Technologies of the US. ARK will provide frequency and time multiple access technology, critical hardware components and network management software to Bharat Electronics for the project. V-Sats, the most expensive part of the system, are to be built at BEs facility near Delhi with technical help from ARK.It will support voice, data, fax and video, besides enabling true multimedia communication between the establishments of defence ordnance factories spread all over the country. There are some 40 defence ordnance factories installations and most of them, if not all, are to be covered by the proposed network. The network will also cover the nine factories of BE in various locations all over the country. The key features of this system include a wide bandwidth, hubless architecture, wide area networking, distributed control architecture and flexibility in assignment of bandwidth. ARKs technology integrates varying traffic requirement of pre-assigned, demand assigned and shared services in a seamless fashion. The network will be called defence production (DP) network and will also be marketed among public sector units and, later, the private companies.

Sources said ARK was chosen due to its expertise in high-speed data transfer and specialisation in encryption, which is peculiar to defence applications.

The DP network will be able to deliver very-high-quality multi-media communication at an affordable price.

Sources said the DP network was more advanced than some of the private networks being offered to business users. BE already has considerable expertise in satellite communication, having worked for Indian organisations like the department of space, DoT and various defence organisations. The venture with ARK marks a significant leap forward in the V-Sat area for business communications.

The Reserve Bank of India is trying to set up a private banking network using V-Sats. The State Bank of India, too, intends to have a private network linking its main branches all over the country. However, DoT is yet to approve their requests.

Sources said the V-Sat space segment availability should improve after the launch of Insat-2D, slated to become functional in the last quarter of this year.