This is the first of four articles to suggest solutions to the problems that would be caused on Earth from the loss of satellite services. I briefly describe the situation in a previous posting at Impending Space Junk Disaster. This article discusses the use of mesh networks to provide connectivity to replace that which is currently provided by space based platforms.
Telecommunications is the only service that can be backfilled upon loss of satellite services. Space based imaging, mapping, and other remote sensing (such as detecting lightning and forest fires) would be almost totally lost in the absence of satellites. Military intelligence would be relegated to methods from the 1960s, such as high altitude aircraft flyovers (with all the associated limitations and risks including being shot down). However, it would be possible to provide telecommunications services from solely terrestrially based equipment.
Mesh network technologies are already in production, albeit for specialized and limited applications such as extending local WiFi range—those may be players in the larger solution, but the need goes far beyond extending WLAN (Wireless LAN) service throughout a hospital, office building, or someone’s large house.
The concept of wide area mesh networking has been around for about 20 years.1 It’s been eclipsed by satellite based service for several reasons, including ease of deployment and cost competitiveness. Remove the satellites themselves, however, and those advantages evaporate—that’s the point of thinking about this before it potentially occurs.
Those in the Internet of Things (IoT) domain have developed solutions for connectivity beyond just a local connection. These Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) leverage Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) protocols and systems,2 and are widely deployed in agricultural and industrial use cases.
Millimeter wave (mmWave) communication systems, i.e. in frequency ranges between 30 and 300 GHz, have the potential for providing connections with high data throughput.3 Some vendors have already developed mmWave systems that are ready for deployment (the purpose here is not to endorse one vendor over another).4 Judging from the availability of solutions already on the market, it’s likely that if a request for information or proposals were issued by any large government agency or corporation, the technical implementations would be readily forthcoming.
Another technical solution that shouldn’t be overlooked is WiMax.5 I like to think of it as long range WiFi, and it along with the other solutions noted above could provide interconnection between municipal WiFi, and commercial operators who’d be willing to connect.
If satellite based services no longer are available, the profit motive likely would change. No connection, no profits. Shared managed mesh could be much cheaper (and possibly more reliable) that other scarce (partly because overloaded) terrestrial long haul systems. A hybrid of several of them might end up being the most practical answer to loss of satellites, considering the varying terrain in the US alone.
The key is advance planning, and judicious pre-implementation. Otherwise if the Kessler Syndrome actually happens, it’s back to 1970s telecommunications—something over which the Internet and phone services we’re used to would not function well (or at all).
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