Product manager at the Government Services Group at TeleCommunication Systems, Cisco's partner in delivering IRIS services, spoke to us about how the partnership came about and what makes IRIS unlike anything else in the industry.
How did TeleCommunication Systems enter the picture as a service provider for Cisco’s Internet Router in Space (IRIS)?
When Cisco launched the hosted payload on Intelsat-14 back in 2009, its original purpose was to prove the concept and advancement of seamless IP on working satellites for the U.S. Government. Then, there was a successful JCTD in 2010 that proved Cisco’s theories in the real world. Since Cisco doesn’t sell managed service networks, it looked to partner with other companies to commercialize the IRIS payload.
Thus, they needed a partner with good experience for deploying and managing satellites, along with a thorough understanding of terrestrial IP based networks. For example, they were looking for experience like what we’ve had with iDirect, Hughes and ViaSat terminals and services deployed across the globe; alongside the extensive IP networks TCS has deployed to support the e911, location-based and SMS services it provides to the major wireless carriers across North America. So, when they came out to the industry looking for a partner, TCS had the right qualifications and the right mindset to bring such an exciting, new technology to market.
How has this partnership benefited TCS customers?
With Cisco actually putting the router onto the satellite, we’re able to make the satellite almost transparent to internet protocol. Why that’s great for a customer is because it has direct impact on their network efficiency.Now, they can buy a pool of capacity to share between sites in a geographic area spanning four continents, they can all share it and it allows a much more efficient use of bandwidth and increase of throughput. This saves the customer money and delivers significantly more data. That’s a huge opportunity for our clients.
IRIS allows you to connect in Africa, Europe and the Americas, and they can all talk together at the same time. Also, very importantly, they can do that on dish sizes of 2 meters or below for high throughput 5 megasymbol carriers, which, for the satellite industry, was practically impossible to do prior to IRIS.
Do you see TCS working with other partnerships that would involve hosted payloads?
We’re keeping an eye on the marketplace as a whole; young and emerging. We are very keen on the Cisco IRIS model; we think it has a huge future in the industry and expect it to play a significant part in other exciting, new programs that will emerge in 2012 and 2013.
Are you keeping an eye out specifically with Cisco down the line, as well?
Very much so. TCS has a long and successful history with Cisco. We absolutely intend on keeping that a close and ongoing relationship. They have some interesting technologies coming into multiple fields of industry, and we’d like to help them with some of those.
How does TCS work with the government in terms of satellite programs?
We have worked very closely with the government for the delivery of satellite programs.We have – as others have – spoken with government agencies about future hosted solutions and how that fits with TCS TotalCom end-to-end communications approach. How that occurs is yet to be determined and it depends on how much the government deploys hosted payloads in the future. We always suggest improved performance, cost reductions, interoperable implementations and new technologies to them, and we will continue to work with them in that capacity.
