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> this will happen with _any_ cellular internet solution (it'll be particularly bad here as the cells are particularly large, but the principle is the same) >

> this will happen with _any_ cellular internet solution (it'll be particularly bad here as the cells are particularly large, but the principle is the same) > if you have terrestrial cellular available to you, all else being equal, it's generally going to be a better option than satellite cellular. Can you elaborate? What is the disadvantage? Why is the performance degradation unsurprising?

rsynnott 4y ago
> What is the disadvantage? Disadvantage of satellite cellular vs terrestrial cellular (ie mobile networks and most WISPs) is largely simply that the satellite cells are generally _enormous_. Starlink cells cover 379km^2. Some very large rural LTE cells may be of similar size, but if they hit capacity it is comparatively simple for the provider to build new towers and make them smaller. Urban LTE/5G cells are _much_ smaller. Latency is a secondary issue; even low earth orbit satellites can't really compete with the sort of latency that 5G can provide, say. > Why is the performance degradation unsurprising? Ultimately, for any cellular service, there's only so much bandwidth available for a cell, and the size of the cell is anything from virtually unchangeable (generally the case for satellite services) to difficult/expensive to change. So, if you're the only user of the cell, you get all the bandwidth (subject to any artificial limits placed by the provider). As more people are added to the cell you're sharing with more and more people, and typically the total achievable bandwidth per cell really isn't that much, so things get worse until the provider is forced to deal with it. For terrestrial cellular they'd normally do this by adding towers or upgrading equipment to increase supply; for satellite their options are much more limited, and they're really mostly looking at increasing cost (thereby destroying demand) and allowing degradation.
happymellon 4y ago
When cells are large, they cover more people. As a service becomes more popular more people will sign up. Since the single cell is shared by more people, the speed will be shared around more, so there is a larger scale for it to degrade and the popularity will ensure this happens. Terrestrial cellular will have a fibre connected to it, and have a smaller area to cover and coverage is going to have less people, meaning the absolute top degradation will be less.

rsynnott 4y ago

> What is the disadvantage? Disadvantage of satellite cellular vs terrestrial cellular (ie mobile networks and most WISPs) is largely simply that the satellite cells are generally _enormous_. Starlink cells cover 379km^2. Some very large rural LTE cells may be of similar size, but if they hit capacity it is comparatively simple for the provider to build new towers and make them smaller. Urban LTE/5G cells are _much_ smaller. Latency is a secondary issue; even low earth orbit satellites can't really compete with the sort of latency that 5G can provide, say. > Why is the performance degradation unsurprising? Ultimately, for any cellular service, there's only so much bandwidth available for a cell, and the size of the cell is anything from virtually unchangeable (generally the case for satellite services) to difficult/expensive to change. So, if you're the only user of the cell, you get all the bandwidth (subject to any artificial limits placed by the provider). As more people are added to the cell you're sharing with more and more people, and typically the total achievable bandwidth per cell really isn't that much, so things get worse until the provider is forced to deal with it. For terrestrial cellular they'd normally do this by adding towers or upgrading equipment to increase supply; for satellite their options are much more limited, and they're really mostly looking at increasing cost (thereby destroying demand) and allowing degradation.

happymellon 4y ago

When cells are large, they cover more people. As a service becomes more popular more people will sign up. Since the single cell is shared by more people, the speed will be shared around more, so there is a larger scale for it to degrade and the popularity will ensure this happens. Terrestrial cellular will have a fibre connected to it, and have a smaller area to cover and coverage is going to have less people, meaning the absolute top degradation will be less.