Peter Hadinger, Inmarsat President U.S. Government, recently attended the 33rd AIAA International Communications Satellite Systems Conference (ICSSC) in Australia, to present a paper on Inmarsat’s next-generation Global Xpress (GX) service.

ICSSC is the world’s most influential technical conference on satellite systems organised by the largest technical society dedicated to the global aerospace professions – the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Titled Global Xpress: The Design, Implementation, and Activation of a Global Ka-Band Network., Peter Hadinger discussed how Inmarsat’s fifth-generation GX programme is creating a worldwide satellite communication service, to meet market demand for high-speed fixed and mobile connectivity for military and humanitarian operations around the world.

Worldwide mobility
Following careful assessment of user requirements and technical possibilities, the paper explains how the main objective with GX was to design a system solution that would deliver global coverage, wideband connectivity, and support for on-the-move users to the very high service standards of Inmarsat.

Requiring no pre-commitments, commercial operators like Inmarsat invest billions of dollars in new space technologies, innovative communication services and applications and secure ground infrastructure. Unlike other operators, however, worldwide mobility has always been core to Inmarsat, which has over 35-years’ experience in delivering mission-critical mobile SATCOM services to government and commercial users worldwide.

The paper provides:

– An overview of the GX space and ground architecture
– The key architecture trades that drove the GX system design
– An insight into the band selection and system design processes
– Performance characteristics for the commercial Ka and military Ka-band services
– Implementation examples compared to prior designs.

To obtain a copy of the paper visit: arc.aiaa.org/doi/book/10.2514/MICSSC15.