Hi Seas Net Policy and Organization Above and

Hi. Seas. Net Policy and Organization Above and around all of the technical stuff: Organization and policies that hold Hi. Seas. Net together

Overview w Business topics w Maintenance w Satellite bandwidth w Coverage area w Earth station structure w Other resources w What next?

Business Topics The interactions of Hi. Seas. Net, satellite operators, NSF, ships, etc.

The Business of Hi. Seas. Net w Think of Hi. Seas. Net as an integrator. We do the following so that ships can have a network drop: w Lease satellite space segment on a yearly basis w Operate a US satellite earth station w Act as a friendly and flexible ISP to provide IP connectivity to stations w Maintain satellite hardware on ships and shore w Make changes based on ship requirements w Provide technical and operational support to ships at sea w Most of the limitations you will find are related to funding or come from entities we are integrating

Who Hi. Seas. Net works with w Funding is largely via NSF w Satellite operations and leases through Intelsat (Cband), Loral (Sat. Mex 5 b 2), and Comm. Systems (Sat. Mex 5 b 1) w Maintenance and Integration with Comm. Systems w Stations operated by oceanographic institutions w Equipment supplied by Comtech, Sea. Tel, Codan, Vertex, Prodelin, Cisco, Digi, Hameg, Server. Tech

Maintenance Issues related to care and feeding of your equipment

Routine maintenance w Routine maintenance performed roughly every 6 months, takes 1 -2 days (see online calendar) w We try to combine ships in single visits to keep costs down so we can handle emergencies w Comm. Systems sends someone to the ship to walk through a checklist of items and record latest settings w Helps to have a ship tech available…is a great chance to refresh or ask new questions w Maintenance report is archived at SIOand sent to institution representatives. Please read and print this report! w Report is used in future troubleshooting

Emergency maintenance w We try to avoid emergency maintenance, but failures do happen w What we can do: w Work with you to troubleshoot and resolve problems based on our experience and resources (we need your help and answers to do this!) w Get in touch with manufacturer to work out details w Get parts to the ship (from our pool or factory) w Send someone to meet the ship, cost/problem dependent

Other maintenance w There may be times you want to have other nonroutine maintenance done on your gear (upgrading equipment, want an additional look, moving antenna, etc. ) w We expect you to be competent doing basic adjustments to the equipment parameters and able to read manuals w You are welcome to contract with Comm. Systems directly and pay for work that is not part of Hi. Seas. Net operational responsibility.

Maintenance process w We like to have you make the changes to your ship if possible, so you know what changed. w With this training, we hope that you can do significant diagnostic work to minimize ship and shore interaction for a faster resolution w When hardware or a site visit is required: w Arranged through Hi. Seas. Net staff, not directly with Comm. Systems. w We can work out schedule, priority, trouble ticket tracking, parts, etc. and keep all the necessary people in the loop.

Spares pool w We maintain a pool of spares in San Diego, CA that we can usually ship immediately. They include: w w w w Spare RF gear for C-band Ku-band antennas Sea. Tel “premium” spares kit for C-band gear Sea. Tel level cage and PCU for “xx 06” antennas Sea. Tel rotary joint Comtech modems Some Cisco router and networking parts Misc RF connectors, cables, combiners, etc. Marine Air air conditioner (for C-band antennas) w These usually cover both earth station gear and ship gear. They can also be borrowed for testing. w This is not everything that can go wrong.

Satellite bandwidth What bandwidth we have and the concept of “more”

Satellite bandwidth w Hi. Seas. Net has the following space segment leased for ships: w IS-701: 5 slots (96 kbps), 160 kbps shared outroute w IS-707: 3 slots (96 kbps), 180 kbps shared outroute, expanding to 4 slots in March 08 (240 kbps outroute) w IS-906: 1 slot (96 kbps), 88 kbps outroute (until 3/30/08) w Sat. Mex 5 b 1: 2 slots (64 kbps), 128 kbps shared outroute w Sat. Mex 5 b 2: 4 slots (64 kbps), 256 kbps shared outroute w Cost /mo/slot is ~$3 k (C-band), $750 (Ku-band) w IP services for IS-906 ship provided by Intelsat (tunnel from ship to earth station through Internet) w Leases are preemptible. If the operator needs to move our signal, we are required to move.

Expanding bandwidth w Can be done a number of ways depending on how much you want, ship position, number of ships online, and bandwidth availability w Hardware w Modems and routers top out at 2 Mbit in any direction w C-band ship-to-shore power limits top out at 400 kbps w Ku-band ship-to-shore power limits at 400 kbps to 2 Mbit depending on the ship configuration w Bandwidth w May already have bandwidth if not all slots are used w May need to be leased from satellite provider, will pay a premium for short term leases w May need to buy 3 rd party downlink/ISP services w Must coordinate with Hi. Seas. Net early!

Satellite operations w Contract limits bandwidth and power for all carriers. w Sat operator is the one that measures signal levels and characteristics w When a signal is too loud, we must turn it down quickly to continue to operate. If we cannot turn it down quickly, we may need to turn it off. w When we make major changes, we need to check with the operator to verify the level is okay. To make adjustments, we usually email the ship, then re-verify when we see a change is made.

Coverage Areas Ships move and satellites do not

Switching coverage areas w Ships can often move from one region to another. w This is possible via empty frequency slots on some satellites. w This requires scheduling which ships can transmit at what times. w We sometimes need to ask a ship to not transmit during an in-port or other down period. Please help us out with that. w We try to be as fair as possible if there is a conflict. Generally science mission has priority.

Procedures for changing coverage areas w Keep an eye on the slot chart. We update it when we notice the schedules changing, but you know your schedule better than we do w If you see a need to move from one region to another, please let us know ASAP so we don’t over look it. w We will try to contact you well in advance of a region move to make sure you are aware. w We will develop a “change document” in PDF format that will list the changes to be made. With it will be a suggested time to make the changes. Please proof the document and ask questions before the scheduled time.

Current coverage maps POR AOR Sat. Mex 5 beam 1 Sat. Mex 5 beam 2

Coverage areas w The Hi. Seas. Net earth station currently operates with satellites in the POR, AOR, and North America regions w Additional coverage areas (Med, IOR, etc. ) are available through independent contracts (New. Skies, Intelsat, etc. ) since the Hi. Seas. Net earth station cannot see the satellites in those areas w Changes required: w New configuration of equipment for space segment w New routing for a new ISP (may give static IPs? ) w Sometimes new hardware to decode different frequencies w Bandwidth sharing advantage disappears

Earth Station What the stationary side looks like

Earth station setup w Very similar to a ship setup (antenna, RF, modem, router) but with a more complicated router setup and a lot more modems (mostly receive) w Infrastructure additions include: w w Climate control and monitoring Remote access to modem configuration Remote access to a Spec. An Building-wide UPS power w Antennas move slowly if at all w Maintenance done every year

Earth station layout

Hi. Seas. Net Resources A network of people and resources, not just modems and routers

Hi. Seas. Net self-serve resources w Website (www. hiseasnet. net) w w w w w Wiki (FAQ, organizational info, science info, wish list, etc. ) Slot scheduler Calendar FAQ File archive Ship schedules Network diagrams Traffic plots Satellite footprints w Mailing lists (subscribe at website) w Operations (mostly announcements re: service) w Users (more for chatter among Hi. Seas. Net end users)

Getting help w Look at the self-serve resources first w Contact the tech team via the email alias if possible (hiseasnet@ucsd. edu). This gets the quickest written response. Contact technical team by phone if you need to. w Send details of your problem. Include ADMC values/plots, specific behavior, info we can use to isolate the problem, requests for what we can do for you w Tell us what you have already done and what the results were. w Answer all of our questions. Really. w Consider AIM if you are online enough

Hi. Seas. Net staff w PI: Dr. Jon Berger (jberger@ucsd. edu) w Carolyn Keen, Laura Cravens-Wertz (business) w Technical team (hiseasnet@ucsd. edu): w Steve Foley (primary contact, 858 -822 -3356, AIM: floatingsteve) w Geoff Davis (backup, 858 -822 -5756) w Brian Battistuz (backup, 858 -534 -7569) w Systems integrators (contracted to Comm. Systems) w Karl Kapusta (tech), Ron Nitz (business) w We are not staffed 24/7, 8/5, or even regular hours. We try to accommodate and respond as best we can. w Steve is half-time, working usually 0630 -0830, 1430 -1630 PST, but often taking calls whenever

How you can help Hi. Seas. Net Learn about the gear and how to troubleshoot Use the resources we provide (manuals, web, etc. ) Be patient if we don’t get back to you right away Humor us if we ask you a dumb question…we have reasons for asking seemingly strange questions w Tell us about your successes and cool projects you have seen that use Hi. Seas. Net w Install a terminal server for your ACU and modem w We need feedback, too! w w w Tell us what you need. Tell us what you want. w Help us collect the resources you need to work well with Hi. Seas. Net

Hi. Seas. Net future w Get the rest of the ships online (for those where it makes sense) w Build a better user community w Offer better training so users are more successful operating their gear and minimizing downtime w Offer more coverage areas w Encourage more real-time data returns w What are we missing?