Israel-based Gilat Satellite Networks has already delivered successful in-orbit testing of its 5G/Low Earth Orbiting VSAT technology.

Now marketed as ‘Aquarius’, the system was on board Telesat’s first pair of test satellites and delivered connectivity as the first ever demo of 5G over a LEO satellite, and then the fastest-ever modem speeds of 1.2 Gb/s of throughput, again on the Telesat craft in 2019.

More recently the technology was incorporated on a Thaicom geostationary satellite and offering 5G connectivity.

Gilat is now bringing its development to a wider market, and says Aquarius can support 5G networks as well as LEO/MEO constellations.

The ultra-high-performance, multi-orbit VSATs provide over 2 Gigabits per second of concurrent speeds and support seamless satellite handover. As 5G networks are deployed and customer demands continue to exponentially grow, Gilat’s Aquarius VSATs are designed to serve, with maximum efficiency, data and media intensive applications such as cellular 5G backhauling, maritime and enterprise. The VSATs exhibit ultra-high processing capabilities achieving unprecedented high throughputs for both downloads and uploads including high packets-per-second processing to meet the high-performance demands. The Aquarius VSAT capabilities, coupled with Gilat’s long-time experience and patented cellular backhaul technology, make it the solution of choice for enabling Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to deliver their customers a true 5G experience over satellite,” says Gilat.

“As the industry progresses to 5G networks and NGSO constellations it is critical for the ground segment to evolve to meet the needs of these high-demand applications,” said Alik Shimelmits, CTO & Product Officer at Gilat. “Gilat’s next generation family of VSATs, Aquarius, are designed to meet needs of a wide range of bandwidth hungry applications and thus incorporate a wide-set of innovative technological achievements, including remarkable speeds and seamless support for multiple satellites,” adds Gilat.

“Satellite communications is an integral enabler of the 5G connectivity vision, providing the scale and scope to enable ubiquitous connectivity, as essential to materialise the vision of redefining the global experience,” commented Asaf Jivilik, Head of Marketing and Business Development at Gilat.

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Categories: 5G, Blogs, Inside Satellite, Satellite

Tags: 5G, Gilat, LEO, VSAT