Oh, that's gonna scare the pants off all those timeshare ground network services startups. Why schedule slots on a startup when you can schedule timeslots on AWS and direct pipe downlinks that feed directly to AWS cloud services on favorable network routes.One can also see this feeding into the Lambda Edge cloud services, deploying single container datacenters into suburban areas underserved by incumbent network providers by bypassing them for longhaul, as the incumbents make more money at their network edges where they peer for transit.Evil endgame thought is that most current cellular wireless providers don't have the capital tables to provide proper 5G deployments (Francis McKierney talks about this in his concept of future infrastructure being functionally an edgeless all enveloping cloud system), but if Amazon was starting from scratch, they can do the combo of containerized datacenters (containing CDN services and edge computing) combined with 5G RF/baseband with backhaul by via LEO megaconstellation satellite to completely short circuit the current cloud to end user paradigm. Not clear if they could get away with moving the 5G baseband to the datacenter completely though (as I understand it, datacenter centralized baseband uses fiber optics to maintain tight timing control, allowing the entire cellular network to act like an intelligent phased array antenna system and keeping cell tower equipment costs down by limiting to antennas and RF components only without a full baseband processor, though chip scale atomic clocks might make it workable without fiber optics)
Server farms in space? Long-term stable and secure environment, and you radiate against the microwave background (aka the best heat sink in the universe). Okay, you have cosmic rays, but there are ways to check against that (see SpaceX's solutions for Dragon, which uses off-the-shelf electronics). And MOD damage, but even that can be mitigated somewhat by being far above LEO.
I'd say Mesh Network first. In the cloud world you have to communicate, a lot. Companies usually find out really quick that they have to upgrade their internet connection once they moved into the cloud. There is also a lot more compute on planet. I'd try really hard to communicate both on orbit and with all the US Bases, not just the big sat com centers. Next up? ASAP stick an AWS Snowball Edge into a sat or two. Local data collection and some AWS compute functions. The military is apparently already using them so nothing new but the location and the speed they move at. "Just" convert them for in space operation... The follow on generations can be more specialized.I would say that AWS is space is for the most part a LEO thing. Any relevant amount of storage or compute required commercial technology, rad hardened gear is just way too slow. Stay low for protection from the magnetic field, don't expect a decade long live span low and replace often.Parts of the technology, esp. mesh networks, can be used in other places.
Server farms in space makes no sense to me. A server farm may use tens of MW and getting power and especially cooling would be much harder than on Earth.
To me, with how things are, I can't see how Bezos hasn't gone after a constellation already.
Quote from: meekGee on 09/23/2018 07:01 pmTo me, with how things are, I can't see how Bezos hasn't gone after a constellation already.they are a pretty big gamble. Iridium finally is paying off, but it took some significant technological breakthroughs and essentially wiping away the debt from the original constellation to make moneyThe Gulf war and the various mideast wars have "helped" because there is a large military component to Iridium...and they are starting to branch out with Airline services (including ADSB) ...but mostly they are still "institutions" not people.essentially what a constellation of small sats banks on is that people like me, can get better internet from "them" then we can, at fixed locations get from local providers. any constellation is going to have to have a fairly sophisticated tracking antenna, which means rooftop installations in worlds particularly in the US where outside antennas are frowned on.the notion of "more people plugging in" is great...except the people who are not plugged in "now" at high speed are mostly not plugged in for a reason...cost. now part of that is cost of infrastructure...but having spent time in Bangladesh, India and Africa (Nigeria/South Africa) the number of people who have the funds to pay much above the 30 USD per month cost is fairly small (ie most people there get internet on their phones at very slow rates) I dont see the Chinese being part of any of this...if the product can beat say 100 mpbs at around 50 dollars a month...it would sale. right now in Houston I can get 1000 MPBS for 140 a month. we have AT@T fiber and its growing...and we are kind of rural.here in Istanbul I get 475 MPBS for about 60 dollars a month and fiber is about three blocks over and coming in either October or November.I am not telling you it wont work...but the numbers are going to have to be competitive.
The market for a NGSO internet constellation is not people who have access to fiber.
The market is boats, planes, cars, and trains.
It's current GSO satellite internet/TV customers, of whom there are millions. It's 4G/5G towers that don't have fiber access. It's people who have only DSL (or worse) access, of whom there are also millions in the US alone.
It's military applications that need more bandwidth in remote locations.
