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Starlink is seeing heavy use in Ukraine with most stocks in the neighboring countries getting bought up. The reason for that is russian strikes on our infrastru
by neonsunset 4y ago
Starlink is seeing heavy use in Ukraine with most stocks in the neighboring countries getting bought up. The reason for that is russian strikes on our infrastructure causing electricity blackouts to the extent of regular internet or 4G being down/highly degraded. As a result, many companies, individuals, offices, etc. are procuring their own sources of energy (diesel/gasoline generators, portable power stations, etc.) and reserve internet connections via Starlink or powerful 4g modems that can reach further cell towers with access to good connection. That with already prevalent use of Starlinks on frontlines (they are very hard to jam and far surpass other satellite offerings).
We do not have access to data but it's not unreasonable to assume that such a spike in use must have eaten into overall network capacity.
- dotancohen 4y ago> prevalent use of Starlinks on frontlines Wouldn't anti-radiation missiles (usually used against SAM batteries) seek these Starlink terminals?
- yencabulator 4y agoOne would expect the missiles be a bit more picky about what they target, or setting up fake targets to defend against them would be way too easy.
- to11mtm 4y agoAdditionally Satellite and Microwave links aren't new technology and are likely used by both sides of military for communication, so there's probably some existing value in making sure you're hitting the right thing.
- neonsunset 4y agoIt's not powerful enough of a source, different frequency bands and, as with GPS too when it comes to jamming, the signal goes mostly upwards so the missile won't be irradiated by it to respond.
- fragmede 4y agoGiven that Ukraine is nowhere near the US, even for satellites, that's hardly likely, given that their v1 satellites don't have inter-satellite links.
- _abox 4y agoEven with the link it makes no sense to route Ukrainian traffic all the way back to the US. All they'll do is route to the nearest downlink. Otherwise the intra-sat connections will become a bottleneck, not to mention the added latency.
- dotancohen 4y agoIf the ground station is near the server, then latency would actually be lower with Starlink. One use case of Starlink is HFT on the NYSE from London, a use case that terrestrial networks are too latent for. This is because the speed of light in a vacuum is 50% faster than the speed of light through fiber, and the distance traveled is just as often shorter as it is longer - depending on satellite position.
- GekkePrutser 4y agoBut you're not accounting for the latency added by the many satellite hops needed to get there :) Every sat will need to do queueing and signal processing.
- dotancohen 4y agoThat's no different that a terrestrial network, in fact it's likely quicker as for better or for worse they're likely not using HTTP between the birds but rather a more efficient protocol. Here I've got 18 hops from my office to HN: $ mtr news.ycombinator.com -rc 3 Start: 2022-12-04T09:27:13+0200 HOST: dotan-OptiPlex-7040 Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev 1.|-- _gateway 0.0% 3 1.4 1.9 1.4 2.8 0.8 2.|-- 172.19.19.254 0.0% 3 0.3 0.4 0.3 0.6 0.2 3.|-- 62.128.42.108 0.0% 3 0.8 0.9 0.8 1.0 0.1 4.|-- 31.154.12.149 0.0% 3 5.4 7.5 5.4 11.7 3.6 5.|-- ??? 100.0 3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.|-- ??? 100.0 3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 7.|-- ??? 100.0 3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 8.|-- ??? 100.0 3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 9.|-- 82.102.131.249 0.0% 3 5.8 5.9 5.8 6.0 0.1 10.|-- 82.102.131.251 0.0% 3 12.4 12.0 11.2 12.5 0.7 11.|-- 82.102.131.201 0.0% 3 31.0 71.5 31.0 135.5 56.0 12.|-- ??? 100.0 3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 13.|-- ??? 100.0 3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 14.|-- 82.102.129.226 0.0% 3 48.9 49.8 48.9 51.1 1.1 15.|-- et-1-0-23-101.edge1.marse 0.0% 3 79.5 80.0 76.9 83.6 3.4 16.|-- ae0.11.bar1.sandiego1.lev 0.0% 3 220.4 214.7 210.2 220.4 5.2 17.|-- m5-hosting.bar1.sandiego1 33.3% 3 798.8 765.5 732.1 798.8 47.2 18.|-- news.ycombinator.com 0.0% 3 233.2 228.1 220.9 233.2 6.4