RELEASE 7: Azimuth and Elevation
Last year Newtec implemented a biannual release strategy for the introduction of new features and performance improvements for its professional equipment product line. Earlier this year, Release 7 was launched, introducing new hardware and software features for our Azimuth and Elevation product lines.
Customers with Release 6 (or earlier) installed base equipment can, for a moderate fee, opt for a software upgrade in order to have access to some of the new features of Release 7. Software updates for bug fi xes and minor performance improvements are made available free of charge for each release during the life cycle of the product.
The main new features introduced with Release 7 are:
Extended L-band (950MHz-2150MHz)
All modulators and modems are now available with an extended L-band output option (950 MHz-2150 MHz). This provides satellite service providers and teleport companies with greater operational flexibility and a means to reduce CAPEX (capital expenditures). The 1,2 GHz bandwidth output enables the modulator to operate across the entire C or DBS bands and is ideal for operating Ka-band uplinks. Satellite receiver and IRD manufacturers and testers will appreciate the ability to test the entire input frequency of a demodulator directly from the output of the modulator.
Higher L-band Output Power
As a result of feedback from station integrators and operators, the power of L-band output of the Azimuth broadcast and Elevation IP modulators and modems has been increased by up to +5 dBm. This increases the margins associated with the control of the power delivered to the earth station antenna. The higher output enables the compensation of performance degradations of the transponder and the variation losses in the earth station.
Transport Stream over IP Alarm and Redundancy
With the introduction of DualFlow, Newtec broadcast modulators and modems are able to interface with equipment that carries transport streams over IP. In order to implement reliable and fast protection schemes in this mode of operation there is a new alarm system in the modulator. The system detects the presence of a valid MPEG signal in the IP stream and triggers the redundancy switch in the case of an invalid MPEG format or signal interruption.
New GUI for the IP appliances EL830/840/860
The IP Performance Enhancing Proxy (PEP) appliances (PEP-Boxes®), the EL830 and EL840, as well as the CCM/VCM/ACM Shaper and Encapsulator, the EL860, of the Elevation range have a new GUI (Graphical User Interface). The EL860, the EL840 PEP-Box® Server and the EL830 PEP-Box® Gateway are configurable via a standard web browser application, enhancing the fluency and speed to set up the devices. The synoptic view in the browser window helps to identify the different functional components of the IP appliance for easy configuration.
Symmetrical Speeds on the EL830 PEP-Box® Gateway
The EL830 PEP-Box® Gateway now comes with symmetrical speed options to accommodate the acceleration in symmetrical Point-to-Point links. In addition to the asymmetrical speeds that were already present in previous versions, the EL830 client unit, installed at a remote site, can now interact at the same speeds (5, 10 or 25 Mbits/second) as the EL840 PEP-Box® Server located in the head-end.
RTP Compression on the PEP-Boxes® EL830 and EL840
Voice and video services over IP rely on the Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP) to communicate over the Internet. On-the-fly RTP detection and compression has been added to premium versions of the EL840 PEP-Box® Server and the EL830 PEP-Box® Gateway. Sited remotely and at the head-end, these devices detect the RTP stream and compress the RTP packets (similar to header compression) to a fragment of their size. Depending on the size of the RTP packets, the compression can be as high as 75 % per stream.
PEP-Box® Improvements: eTCPv2
Newtec's PEP-Box® appliances run an enhanced TCP (eTCP) protocol in order to optimise TCP traffic over long delay, low-loss satellite links. Release 7 adds an upgrade to the already available eTCP protocol, the eTCPv2. In addition to removing unnecessary overhead, features were added in the upgrade that optimise the efficiency and user-experience of IP sent over a satellite link. The upgrade is available for the EL810 Mobile PEP-Box® Terminal, the EL830 PEP-Box® Gateway and the EL840 PEP-Box® Server.
