Meeting between STEI-ITB and JAXA: Multicast Experiment using the WINDS Satellite

The meeting about ‘Multicast Experiment using the WINDS Satellite’ has been conducted on Monday March 3^rd, 2008, between STEI-ITB team, led by Prof. Utoro Sastrokusumo and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) team. STEI-ITB team includes Dr. Sugihartono and Dr. Andriyan Bayu Suksmono. According to Prof. Utoro, who has had a long term relationship with Japan since 1992, this joint experiment has been initiated for some years and this new agreement on WINDS has just been formally signed in last January. The joint-effort preparation and coordination from both sides with Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Depkominfo), Ministry of Trade, and Ministry of Finance, are to be executed within the next few months, before the installation of WINDS ground stations in next September.

According to Mr. Yamanaka from JAXA, besides Indonesia, WINDS will be deployed in other places as well: Hong Kong, Manila, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore (in JAXA’s plan), Jakarta, and Bangalore. The WINDS experiments consists of (1) Basic experiments, planned to be conducted in September – October 2008 time frame and (2) Application experiments, to be conducted upon completion of (1).

According to Prof. Utoro’s detailed explanation in several discussions, as the GEO (Geo Stationary Earth Orbit), WINDS, operated in Ka-Band (downlink 17.7-18.8 GHz and uplink 27.5-28.6 GHz), would serve in communication, navigation, remote sensing and weather forecast services. Different with C-Band and L-Band which are the overly-utilized bands, Ka-Band provides a wider band-width, and a higher data rate communication for its potential users. However, as the most upper frequency band, the Ka-Band suffers a higher rain attenuation, therefore requires additional equipments/technologies to reduce this rain attenuation effects.

There are several researches required to be conducted before the application-related experiments is conducted, which include researches related to (1) study of telecommunication waves characteristics in Ka-Band and (2) technologies to overcome the rain attenuation and tropical climate influence in Ka-Band. STEI team has prepared some researches related to WINDS experiments, including Prof. Utoro’s research, ‘Development of Satellite Mobile Telemedicine and Disaster Mitigation Management Support By WINDS Project’; Dr. Andriyan’s research, ‘Performance Evaluation of Distributed Image Coder in A Wide Band Satellite-Based Telemedicine System’; Dr. Sugihartono’s research, ‘Application Experiments for IP-based Portable Rural Communication System using WINDS’; and Joko Suryana’s research, ‘Performance of KA-band Gigabit Satellite WINDS in Indonesia’. Other studies conducted by some STEI students, supported by STEI’s Telecommunication Research Group and JAXA are : ‘Study of WiMAX Site Diversity for WINDS Experiment in Indonesia‘ by Rizki Sawitri, ‘Study of WINDS Parameter Evaluation for Broadband VSAT in Indonesia’ by Prita Kandella, ‘Evaluation of Corporation Broadband Internet Performance using WINDS Satellite in Indonesia’. Papers written by these students, supported by Prof. Utoro and Joko Suryana, MT. and JAXA has been accepted in the 26^th International Symposium of Space Technology & Science in Hamamatsu, Japan, to be presented in June 2008.

The application-related experiments would include some applications such as: e-Learning application, a joint cooperation between ITB, ITS (Institut Teknologi Surabaya) and JICA, with its already-established INHERENT (Indonesian Higher Education Research Network); e-Health (by Prof. Utoro & team); and Disaster Management System, with the already established application, Sentinel Asia, provided by JAXA and to be deployed jointly by ITB and LAPAN. These applications are required to be ready in the 1^st quarter of 2009, to start the experiment for completion of the STEI-ITB & JAXA’s two-years agreement. According to JAXA’s explanation, WINDS has 5-years mission life with the possibility of life-extension, by redesigning WINDS installation/parameters after that life-time duration.