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experienced global coverage in which it can transit from one geographical market to another without required site visits, saving time and money. The advanced

VSAT solution has proven its ability to

Andrew Lucas discusses

Production seamlessly provide communications to

Adding how advanced VSAT these rigs globally as well as other deep- capabilities are essential for water drilling and production companies. ofshore communications. bandwidth

The future ith the development of the world’s Over the last 20 years, the

W communications industry frst Ku band very small aper- has seen a drastic increase ture terminal (VSAT) systems in 1985, in bandwidth requirements, real-time broadband communications number of systems onboard became more seamless and portable for rigs, number of offshore companies working in remote and harsh remote personnel, complex- environments such as oil feld drilling and exploration. However, reconfguring ity of offshore rigs, assets moving into new regions bandwidth to accommodate changing such as deepwater and environments or operations has been ultra-deepwater, and auto- costly, taking days or weeks to process. mation and data acquisition

Additionally, companies are often unsure requirements. of the amount of potential bandwidth

A Harris CapRock technician prepares a stabilized antenna they will need on a regular basis and Once new automated Photo from Harris CapRock.

system for advanced VSAT deployment.

choose to lease less than optimal band- systems are deployed, a width required. So what’s the solution? rates exceeding 160 Mbps per outbound few years of proving the value and reli-

Advanced VSAT. and 15 Mbps per return. This provides ability of the technology will be needed

Advanced VSAT accommodates rapidly benefts such as unprecedented speed before a decrease in headcount is recog- changing operational requirements includ- in capacity increases and an increase nizable. However, while it should yield a ing rapid transmission of large fles such in connections of all remote sites in lowered demand for operational person- as drilling logs, allowing remotely located real time. It also allows communication nel, it’s expected to see an increase in the experts to resolve local issues through service providers to deliver better eff- number of technical personnel to support the provision of high defnition video ciencies and resiliency, while improving more sophisticated systems used for data and aide disaster relief efforts by utilizing network performance and reducing feld gathering. For example, an average rig dynamic bandwidth management archi- service dispatches. today could have anywhere from 300,000 tecture. The technology upgrade replaces Implementing the latest modulation to 400,000 data gathering points, and of older, less effcient equipment with new techniques, from advanced quality of those, approximately 30,000 to 40,000 are and higher performing devices offering a service (QoS) to adaptive coding modula- being read while less than 1000 are actu- far more automated infrastructure. tion (ACM), helps to ensure the highest ally being reported back.

Advanced VSAT allows each location quality of service with minimal jitter and Investing in next-generation satellite on the network to use the maximum band- processing latency for real-time traffc, communications technology enables width available, without incurring the priority treatment of mission critical companies to access the maximum traditional costs associated with dedicated applications, maximum bandwidth and amount of resources available to meet bandwidth. Utilizing dynamic bandwidth higher satellite link availability. their daily, hourly and even by-the-min- allocation enables unmatched process- Recently, a company with a feet of ute needs. Communications providers ing capacity and a substantial increase deepwater drilling vessels sought to are continuously implementing the latest in information rates than prior solutions. upgrade its communications system, technologies to provide businesses with

With an advanced VSAT platform, band- requiring access to more bandwidth to optimal results and solutions. width upgrades no longer require two to allow complete voice, video and data

Andrew Lucas is four weeks but can be accomplished in a applications. chief technology matter of hours. At the conclusion, rates The operator’s outdated time division offcer for Harris can be lowered back to pre-event levels or multiple access (TDMA) system was

CapRock. He has over kept in place for future use. replaced with Harris CapRock’s SCPC- 20 years’ experience

Harris CapRock partnered with based advanced VSAT solution. Harris in the satellite

Comtech to deploy its advanced VSAT CapRock ftted the sites with dual-band communications solution based on single channel per car- antennas and larger BUCs, enabling industry. Before rier (SCPC) technology, which leverages higher throughput speed options and true serving as chief technology offcer for the versatility of a network management “on demand” services for the customer,

Harris CapRock, he served as business system that dynamically reassigns satel- such as HD video support, real time manager for Schlumberger Global lite capacity on demand subject to the streaming, scheduled event planning and

Connectivity Services (GCS) until its remote site’s traffc profle. The technol- live video surveillance.

acquisition by Harris Corp. in 2011. ogy enables users to achieve information Since upgrading, the operator has

October 2014 | OE oedigital.com 58 058_OE1014_ProdOps3_HarrisCaprock.indd 58 9/23/14 10:25 AM