Technical

What technology is Tooway™ based on?
Tooway™ is based on ViaSat’s SurfBeam® DOCSIS® two-way broadband satellite system. Unlike other consumer satellite-based Internet services, this system requires no connection via cable or phone lines for receiver channel. The SurfBeam system is well established in North-America (the Wildblue project, intended to above 1 million consumers and operate with two satellites). It is a highly scaleable open standards-based platform that lowers the cost of consumer terminals and services significantly by using cable modem networking technology, DOCSIS 1.1, a widely used open standard. To adapt the standard to satellites, ViaSat has developed a satellite air interface that is seamlessly integrated into DOCSIS head-end termination systems.

How long is the time delay with satellite data transmissions?
Geostationary satellites are located in orbit approximately 36,000 kilometres above the equator (Clarke belt orbital position, where attraction of the earth gravitation is approximately equal to centrifugal force and the objects leave the boundary of earth gravitation influence). A roundtrip to a satellite for data needs about 253 msec with one pass through satellite and above 600 msec, if it is used applications, based on protocols requiring more than one pass through satellite. To mitigate latency, which would impact on TCP throughput and web browsing speeds, a Performance Enhancing Proxy (PEP) and Web acceleration are integrated into the SurfBeam modem and DOCSIS head-end system.

How stable is the Tooway™ service in bad weather?
At one time, heavy rain was thought to be a cause of bad quality of service through satellite connections. Indeed, the reduction of signal level is so important that it was difficult to guarantee a high-quality service, using not so much expensive equipment. ViaSat has included in the SurfBeam system satellite air interface technology that mitigates rain fade. The SurfBeam system automatically responds to rain fade with uplink power control and adaptive data coding techniques (Adaptive Coding and Modulation - ACM) that overcome potential outages, while optimizing the use of satellite transponder bandwidth and its power. This gives the Tooway™ network higher reliability compared to other two-way consumer satellite services for single or group of users, offered in Europe.

What frequency bands and geographical areas operates Tooway™ service?
Tooway™ service offered in Bulgaria operates in Ku- band capacity on the company’s EUROBIRD™ 3 satellite at 33° East orbital position. The satellite is made by Boeing Satellite System, has 20 transponders in Ku-band, launched with carrier-rocket Ariana-5 on 29 of March 2003 year and it is planned to be used till 2015 year.
In 2011, Eutelsat launched new satellite which operates in Ka-band with capacity more than used this time.

What are Ku and Ka-band and what are their advantages?
Broadcast satellites principally operate in Ku-band frequencies that have the benefit of offering a broad geographic coverage through a single footprint. Ka-band, which is now beginning to be exploited over Europe, has other benefits.
International telecommunication union (ITU) allows increasing the frequency band for each satellite (up to 1 GHz for each orbital slot). For dedicated two-way communications technology with many separate beams, respectively many spot beams allows extensive frequency reuse, effectively lowering the cost of the spectrum. This allows for higher transmission rates, supporting higher peak speeds for individual subscribers. The higher Ka-band frequencies allow smaller antennas to be employed for the subscriber equipment, which will reflect to vastly decreasing equipment price.

Who handles the platform operations?
Located in the SkyPark teleport in Turin, Italy, the platform and hub operations for the Tooway network will be operated by Eutelsat’s broadband subsidiary Skylogic. Skylogic is daughter company and is 100 % owned by Eutelsat. Skylogic is established for developing broadband services and has more than 50 people on each site for a total of 14 hubs and 8 Eutelsat satellites. Staff work around the clock at the teleport to maintain the highest availability of service.

English