Viasat has worked with the Spanish Ministry of Defence (MoD) to install two redundant Network Control Stations (NCSs) to support two satellites, SpainSat NG I and SpainSat NG II.—one ground station controls the UHF Time Domain Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, while the other ground station serves as a back-up.
The NCSs for the Spanish MoD were built by Viasat team members in the firm’s Carlsbad, California, lab, using antennas built by Viasat’s close partner, Blacktree Technology. Once assembled, the company underwent a Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) to demonstrate the system’s operation for the customer and the project partners, Telefónica S.A., who served as the overall Program Prime under the Spanish MoD, and AICOX SOLUCIONES, S.A.U. ,who served as Viasat’s prime contractor/in-country representative for the Spanish MoD and provider of civil works and antennas.
After accomplishing the same FAT for the second NCS site, the team combined both sites and conducted another successful, full-system acceptance test.
To achieve Spain’s priority objective of a UHF SATCOM capability for the country’s armed forces using the new SPAINSAT-NG satellites, the NCS included the following Viasat solutions:
Visual Integrated SATCOM Information, Operation and Networking (VISION) planning and network management software is an integrated, user-friendly single network management interface for legacy UHF DAMA and IW services. The integrated controller dramatically accelerates connectivity on the battlefield, improving from 90 seconds through a legacy UHF SATCOM system to as little as 4 seconds with IW. Additionally, operators can reconfigure UHF satellite networks on the fly to meet new mission priorities in real time.
The interface simultaneously manages all 25-kHz legacy DAMA and IW networks and services, enabling multiple data and voice users to operate at the same time. VISION is part of Viasat’s Network Management Solution, which allows users to maximize channel efficiency and remotely control sites from a single terminal – streamlining logistics and reducing labor needed to run the network.
Integrated Waveform Channel Controller (IWCC) enables multi-user group communications with the addition of MIL-STD TDMA protocols to traditional 5- and 25-kHz UHF satellite channels and expands capacity to 10–14 data and voice users for every UHF channel.Ultimately, Viasat was able to deliver two fully integrated, operational, and manageable IW-capable NCS installations to support the Spanish MoD, which will allow the optimization of UHF capabilities by increasing the number of users able to access satellite resources.
Viasat delivered the Spanish MoD NCS installations prior to SpainSat NG I’s anticipated entry into commercial service.